platypus

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Scientists Find Evidence of 'Age of Monotremes'
Scientists Find Evidence
of 'Age of Monotremes'
NEW STUDY
May 28, 2024 10:50 AM CDT

Scientists Find Evidence of 'Age of Monotremes'

A diversity of platypus-like creatures roamed Australia some 100M years ago

(Newser) - There are exactly five existing egg-laying mammals, or monotremes: the platypus and four echidna species, all native to Australia and New Guinea. According to new research, they're the last survivors of a diverse set of species that roamed the southern continents during the time of the dinosaurs. The Lightning...

Cyclops Mountains Expedition Makes Amazing Finds

Team captured first images of a platypus relative long feared extinct

(Newser) - The Cyclops Mountains in a remote part of Indonesia are not an easy place to explore—but braving the rugged terrain—and leeches that drop from trees—was worth it, expedition members say. An expedition led by Oxford University researchers found dozen of creatures new to science and one that...

Someone Is Decapitating Platypuses in Australia
Search Is On for Platypus Killer 
Apr 13, 2017 9:27 AM CDT

Search Is On for Platypus Killer

Wildlife officials call 3 killings, including 2 beheadings, 'despicable act of cruelty'

(Newser) - Wildlife officials are calling it "a despicable act of cruelty to one of Australia's most loved animals." Over the last five weeks, three platypuses have been killed and dumped in a botanical garden in New South Wales, despite the fact that the animal is protected across the...

New Fossil Find: 'Platypus-Zilla'

3-foot-long creature lived between 5M and 15M years ago: scientists

(Newser) - As if platypuses weren't weird enough already, scientists in Australia have come upon a fossilized tooth of what they're calling "platypus-zilla"—a creature some three feet long, or at least twice the size of your everyday platypus. "It probably would have looked like a platypus...

4 Animals With Crazy Abilities
 4 Animals With Crazy Abilities 
Jun 18, 2013 7:06 PM CDT

4 Animals With Crazy Abilities

Sierra Club list includes tigers, thanks to their whiskers

(Newser) - How does a tiger know when its prey is dead? It uses its ultra-sensitive whiskers to detect a pulse, or lack thereof. So says the Sierra Club in rounding up four animals with "superhero" abilities. Those whiskers have sensitive nerve endings, and after a tiger takes down its prey,...

Here's Why Platypus Look So Goofy
Here's Why Platypus Look So Goofy
May 7, 2008 7:00 PM CDT

Here's Why Platypus Look So Goofy

Scientist decode its DNA, see part mammal, part reptile

(Newser) - Scientists have decoded the genome of the duck-billed platypus, National Geographic reports, with their findings as interesting as they expected. Research, published in Nature, confirms that the platypus is the earliest living offshoot of mammalian evolution, yet retains many genetic throwbacks to reptilian ancestors thought to have lived 300 million...

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