Platypus and echidna are very strange animals, probably the strangest animals on Earth. They are the only mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live babies. When biologists first saw the platypus' skin, they thought it was a prank. Somebody just sewed a duck's bill and a beaver's tail to an otter's body. But they found no stitches on the skin.

Echidna is as strange as platypus. It looks like a mix of porcupine and anteater, but echidna belongs to the same Monotremata family as platypus. Biologists call egg-laying mammals monotremes, because they have a cloaca like birds, reptiles and amphibians.

I want to thank Oleg Kugaev for wonderful videos of the platypus from Tasmania.

#echidna #platypus #monotremes

свернуть