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Platypus

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Platypus Parts | National Geographic

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A Little Bit About Platypus

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The Platypus Conspiracy

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Hand Feeding & Playing With A Friendly Platypus

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Meet our platypus twins!

The platypus, sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. Together with the four species of echidna, it is one of the five extant species of monotremes, the only mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young. The animal is the sole living representative of its family (Ornithorhynchidae) and genus (Ornithorhynchus), though a number of related species appear in the fossil record. The first scientists to examine a preserved platypus body judged it a fake, made of several animals sewn together.