Platypuses

The platypus looks a bit like that.

The platypus, however, is a completely independent animal which is not made up of beavers, ducks or any other creature. Its tail is vastly different to that of a beaver's, and even its bill is a different shape and size to a duck's. So in reality, the platypus looks nothing like the description in the question.

The platypus originated from, and is native to, Australia. It is not found in any other country. It is endemic to Australia's eastern states, including the southern island state of Tasmania.

No. Fossil evidence indicates that platypuses have always existed more or less in their current form. Ancient platypuses were larger and had teeth, unlike modern platypuses, but platypuses do not provide any sort of evolutionary link between reptiles and mammals.

These creatures are all endemic to Australia.

As platypuses are found in a range of habitats, from rainforest to wet sclerophyll to dry sclerophyll forest, the type of plant varies hugely. There may be ferns, grass trees, eucalyptus (gum) trees, acacia (wattle), callistemon (bottle brush), melaleuca and other native Australian bush plants or almost any other plant found in eastern Australia. Platypuses live alongside creeks and rivers that may lie amid bushland, or in rainforests, so it depends on the type of plant unique to that area. Common grasses and reeds may be found around the creeks where they live.

Various algae grow in the creeks and rivers, but being freshwater, there is no seaweed, of course. Other water plants include water lilies.

No. Echidnas do not attack anything. They use their sharp-clawed feet to dig into termite and ant nests in order to reach the insects, but they certainly do not attack people.

No, the platypus is completely carnivorous. It does not eat plant matter at all, but feeds on annelid worms, tiny shrimp and annelid worms that live at the bottom of freshwater creeks and rivers. It does not eat vegetation.

No. Platypuses and echidnaslay eggs. They are members of the order Monotremata, so they are known as monotremes. There is just one species of platypus and two species of echidnas: the short-beaked echidna of Australia and the long-beaked echidna of New Guinea. There are three sub-species of the long-beaked echidna.

No. Koalas are not ruminants. Ruminants have stomachs with four chambers; a koala's stomach has just one chamber.

No. Only two platypuses have ever been known to be bred whilst in captivity.

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Platypuses are found in a variety of temperatures and climates, from the cooler sub-alpine areas in the south, such as Victoria and the Tasmanian highlands, north through New South Wales to tropical far north Queensland. They can survive extremes of heat that occur in Victorian summers as well as the cold winters. Platypuses live in bushland as well as tropical, sub-tropical and temperate rainforests.

Platypuses and spiny anteaters, more correctly known as echidnas, are monotremes, or egg-laying mammals. They both reproduce via sexual reproduction.

Platypuses lay eggs in a chamber at the end of a burrow dug into a riverbank or next to a creek. The eggs hatch into young platypuses after about ten days. The babies initially feed off mothers' milk, drinking from grooves on the mother's abdomen where it seeps from glands, rather than attaching to teats.

For echidnas, after mating, there is a gestation period for the egg of 23 days. During breeding season, the female develops a rudimentary pouch which is really just a flap of skin. When it comes time to lay her egg, she curls tightly into a ball and lays it directly in this pouch, where it is incubated for around 10 days. The young emerge blind and hairless, and stay in the pouch, suckling for two to three months.

Echidnas are terrestrial animals which move by walking on four legs. The platypus also has four legs. When on land, it walks. When in water, it swims. Its feet have retractable webbing between the toes.

Adult platypuses do not have teeth, so they "chew" their food by grinding it between horny plates on their upper and lower jaws. Echidnas eat by using their long, sticky tongues to capture termites and ants. This is why they are sometimes called "spiny anteaters".

The platypus swims often as it must hunt its food in the water, only returning to land to shelter in a burrow dug in the riverbank or creek bank. Platypuses make hundreds of dives in a single feeding session, and it must find enough food to make up its own body weight each day.

A newly hatched platypus is completely helpless. All it can do is drink the milk that oozes from glands on its mother's abdomen.

A baby platypus nurses from its mother for three to four months. After that, it stays with its mother until it is around a year old, learning to hunt for itself. Although platypuses are solitary animals, the mother and babies do form a small family group for up to a year.

There is just one species of platypus, Ornithorhynchus Anatinus. It is found only in Australia, and is the same species, whether it lives in the sub-alpine regions of the south, or in the tropical northern freshwater creeks. Platypuses are one of three species of monotremes, mammals that lay eggs.

The platypus is not listed as endangered. Platypus do not yet even qualify as threatened, although they are unofficially "vulnerable". Although very delicate creatures, sensitive to ecological changes, pollution and habitat loss, their distribution is still much the same as it was prior to European settlement, apart from in South Australia where they were wiped out last century (like many native species), being hunted for their fur. The platypus is now a completely protected species.

It depends how big the platypus and shark are, and it also depends if they were provoked or not.

Baby platypuses feed on mothers' milk, but the mother does not have teats. Instead, she secretes her milk through glands on her underside, and the young platypus feeds on that.

The platypus is a very shy and elusive creature, hiding during the day, and doing most of its searching for food in the evening and at night. A platypus may make up to 100 dives a day searching for food, staying underwater for one to two minutes at a time.

Platypuses shelter in burrows they dig in riverbanks, using their sharp claws which have retractable webbing.

Males platypuses can defend themselves with a sharp spur on their hind ankle which delivers strong venom.

The platypus is completely native to Australia alone, and not found anywhere else. It has not been introduced to any other country.

It is a monotreme, and unique to Australia.

No, because the platypus is not a marsupial. A platypus is a monotreme (egg-laying mammal).

It is not the only venomous mammal. "Venomous" is the correct term, rather than "poisonous", as things which are poisonous must be ingested, i.e. eaten or drunk. Other venomous marsupials include the Cuban solenodon, Eurasian Water Shrew, Northern Short-tailed Shrew and Southern Short-tailed Shrew, just to name a few.

The platypus is nocturnal, so its days are spent curled up in its burrow, which is dug above the waterline in creek banks and riverbanks.

At night, it spends much of its time swimming and diving for food in freshwater creeks, rivers and lakes of eastern Australia.