Platypus | is a small species of semi-aquatic mammal indigenous to the eastern coast of Australia.

Known for it’s unique looking appearance, the Platypus belongs to a small group of mammals called monotremes, of which there are only three species. The Platypus along with the Short-Nosed Echidna and Long-Nosed Echidna are the only mammals that are known to lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young, making them truly unique and leading to them not being recognised as true mammals for a long time. They do however, possess and feed their young using their mammary glands – the essential characteristic from which the class Mammalia takes its name. When the first Platypus specimen arrived in Britain in 1798, it was thought to be a hoax as the Platypus looks like it is a mixture of a mammal and a bird.
The Platypus is an animal with a small, streamlined body that is covered in short and dense waterproof fur that varies in colour from dark brown on their back with a light brown or silver underside and a plum coloured middle. They have short limbs with partially webbed hind feet and a broad, flat tail (which resembles the tail of a beaver) that are used as rudders when underwater. Their front feet are fully webbed and help to propel the Platypus through the water and can be turned back when on land, exposing their large nails to aid them when walking or burrowing into the river banks. One of the Platypus’s most distinctive and unusual features is the large, broad bill that looks like the beak of a duck. The bill of the Platypus is soft and pliable and covered in a multitude of sensory receptors that help them to detect the small electrical signals emitted from their prey species. Their bills are very touch-sensitive and are often used to probe the mud on the riverbed for the small insect larvae which they most commonly feed on. Males are larger in size than females and possess a poison spur on the ankle of each hind foot that is used to drive away rival males during the breeding season.
The Platypus is an animal that is found on the east coast of Australia from Cooktown in Queensland in the north, all the way down to the island of Tasmania in the south and has also been introduced to Kangaroo Island in southern Australia. They inhabit streams and rivers, and some lakes that have suitable banks for burrowing in and a permanent source of water.