What mammal lays eggs? Order Monotremes or Oviparous. Characteristics and origin. Common seal or new marsupial

Animals are generally divided into two main groups, the first being vertebrates, which have a backbone or spinal column, and invertebrates, which do not.

Vertebrates include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Animals such as insects, worms, snails, octopuses, sea ​​stars etc. represent invertebrates that lack a backbone.

Platypus

Vertebrates, which appeared on earth about 480 million years ago, are the most advanced animals. Today, the most highly developed among them are mammals that appeared about 200 million years ago. All warm-blooded mammals are covered with fur or hair. With their highly developed nervous system and other adaptations, mammals adapt to the environment on earth that supports life.

Most mammals grow in the womb and are born fairly well developed. But in mammals, marsupials such as Kangaroo, Koala, etc., babies are born tiny and underdeveloped. They continue their next phase of growth safely in their mothers' pouch. In this context, the most interesting and exceptional case is that of monotremes or oviparous mammals. This .

Monotremes fall into subclasses considered to be the most primitive mammals, which are limited only to Australia and its adjacent neighboring islands, i.e. Tasmania and New Guinea. Monotremes do not give birth to children at all. They lay eggs like birds and reptiles, and the eggs hatch into babies.. They do not have a placenta and their digestive and urogenital tract opens into the cloaca. They are oviparous, and the corpus callosum of the brain is poorly developed or absent.

Monotremes are small mammals with a dense body, small legs, beak-like jaws and large claws.

Platypuses and echidnas are venom-bearing mammals, that is, they produce a poisonous liquid for protection.

Maybe, the strangest of all monotreme mammals is egg laying. Three important representatives monotremes in the world today are the Platypus and four species of Echidna. They are the main inhabitants of Australia, New Guinea and adjacent islands.

Platypuses appear to be primarily native to Australia and Tasmania. They are semi-aquatic oviparous mammals. They are the only living representative of their platypus family. They lay their eggs in a nest made of grass and leaves, consisting of a very long nesting hole on the bank of a river. The platypus is one of the most ancient of all mammals known today.

This fact stems from their origin where back in 1798, scientists belonging to the Royal Imperial College of Medicine in London examined the preserved bodies of the platypus and recognized that the animal was composed of several genus. For example, the beak or beak is wide and flat just like a duck, hence they are called like a duck, their flattened tail resembles that of a beaver, and their webbed feet are similar to those of an otter. Their eyes are small with membranes on the outer feathers. Both webbed feet and a flattened tail and streamlined features of the body make it ideal for swimming and therefore it spends up to half of its time rummaging and burrowing in the water to find food. They use their tail for dual purposes, i.e. as a rudder and also store fat for a rainy day.

Usually the male and female look the same, but males can be easily distinguished from their peers. The male has a spur on both hind limbs associated with a venom gland, thus showing an example of sexual dimorphism. Platypuses lead night look life and are usually active at night. Nature has endowed these animals with an extraordinary feeding regime.

They hunt at night and locate prey hidden in the mud by receiving electrical impulses generated by the muscles of the prey.

The platypus senses these types of impulses through sensory sensors that are sensitive to touch and movement. While hunting, they keep their eyes and nostrils tightly closed.

Echidna

Echidnas are ant eaters that are not harmful and belong to the echidna family. There are four modern looking, which, along with the platypus, are the only surviving members and the only extant oviparous mammals that lay eggs. Their diet consists mainly of ants and termites. They live in Australia and surrounding islands.

The echidna and platypus are the world's only oviparous mammals, known as monotremes.

The female lays a single egg 22 days after mating, and places it directly in her pouch. Hatching occurs after ten days. The young echidna sucks milk from its pores (monotremes do not have nipples), and remains in the pouch for 45 to 55 days. The mother then digs a burrow for the matured cub and returns every five days to nurse it until it is weaned at seven months. The average wild echidna can live up to 16 years.

The echidna looks almost porcupine-like, being covered in long, sharp and protective spines. They use their powerful front claws to dig into the ground or reach for termites, and then they eat their prey using their long, sticky tongue. The female Echidna usually carries a single egg or sometimes two or three eggs in a temporary brood pouch that develops on her abdomen. The incubation time for eggs varies from ten to twelve days. She then feeds the tiny, helpless infant breast milk, just like other mammals.

There are mainly two species of Echidnas that are restricted to Australia and nearby islands. The two species are: short-beaked and long-beaked. The short bill will grow to approximately 35 cm in length, and the long bill will grow to approximately 70 cm in length. But both species of Echidna use their strong claws to dig up their prey and dig holes.

The short-beaked echidna is a fairly common animal in Australia and New Guinea. It is metropolitan in nature and is found in almost all types of habitats - from dry deserts to cold highlands, scrub and forests, as the long-beaked echidna is found only in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Despite its name, it eats ants with its long beak and sometimes worms, which it catches with the barbs on its tongue.

Electroreceptors of oviparous mammals

Monotremes are the only mammals known to have electroreceptors.

They find prey by detecting electrical fields generated by their muscle contractions. Electroreception of the platypus is the most sensitive property of monotremes. Electroreceptors are located in the skin of the beak.

The platypus can determine the direction of an electrical source, perhaps by comparing differences in signal strength through the electroreceptors. The platypus feeds neither the eyes nor the sense of smell. Most likely, when he rummages at the bottom of streams, his electroreceptors detect weak electric currents, generated by the muscular contraction of its prey, so it distinguishes between living and nonliving objects.

Connecting link

As oviparous animals, the echidna and the platypus are seen today as a link because they share some symbols that are common to reptiles and mammals. For example, their egg production belongs to reptiles, the hairs on their skin are like mammals.

Now these animals are protected by law and are widespread in some regions. But there is information that these creatures are illegally poached for their skin and this is certainly a serious concern.

Long before white-skinned aliens arrived on the Australian continent, extraordinary creatures lived there - half people, half monkeys, and next to them their relatives whole family totemic animals.

This is approximately how the aborigines imagine times gone by. From then to the present day, animals have been preserved in Australia that, it would seem, should have long ago turned into fossils.

Giant snake and ostrich dinosaur

First of all, these are the colossal-sized snakes of Central Australia: the volunqua and their relatives, the mindi, or rainbow snakes. But the spellbound contemplation of this “rainbow” may be the last thing you see in your life. Fortunately, the reptile emits a sickening odor that warns of its presence. Other misfortunes are also attributed to Mindy: the snake is believed to bring with it an epidemic of syphilis.

These snakes live in coastal areas and are almost unknown in inland areas, where barely 500 millimeters of rainfall a year. For local tribes, giant snakes served as prototypes of fantastic creatures from numerous traditions and legends.

One of them is the legend about the evil yero, either a snake or an eel, who lives in some northwestern lakes. The throat of this creature is incredibly wide. According to views Australian Aboriginals, whirlpools can be born in it.

“On the Atherton Plateau in Queensland,” says G. Whitley, an ichthyologist from the Australian Museum, “there is a lake that I could not get the rowers of my boat to cross. They believed that some mythical animal lived in the depths of the lake.”

What kind of animal is this? Probably in the form fairytale snake ideas about all the dangers that await a person sailing over great depths on a light boat were embodied. This is a unique form of recording the experience of generations among the aborigines.

No less impressive are the legends about an animal called Gauarge - an unusual animal that leads a semi-aquatic lifestyle. He drags down to the bottom everyone who dares to swim through his domain. Remarkably, the gauarge is described as an emu, but an emu without feathers!

If you ever get a chance to look at a plucked Australian ostrich, its carcass will look like Struthiomimus, one of the dinosaurs whose name means “which resembles an ostrich.”

Many people believe that dinosaurs are certainly enormous monsters. However, among them there were specimens no larger than a chicken. Between these dwarfs and the giant iguanodonts lies Struthiomimus, an ostrich dinosaur that lived in swampy coastal lowlands, but also found refuge in the water.

It can be assumed that the aborigines met or retained in their legends the memory of encounters with a living dinosaur. In any case, it is more useful to treat the legend of the Gauarg with attention rather than with contempt.

Dwarf eating children

It is quite easy to find an explanation for the old Australian legend about the mockingbird who is not taken by death. Now zoologists are well aware that this is none other than the bird Dacelo gigas, nicknamed Martin the Hunter. The night cries of this bird still instill fear in local residents.

One of these “nightmarish” creatures has long been considered yara maya-vho. The Aborigines claim that this is a small, toothless man, similar to a frog. It lives on palm trees and has suckers on its fingers. They say that with these suckers he clings to the body of a child who finds himself under a tree and does not let go until he has sucked all the blood out of him.

It is surprising that zoologists could not identify this creature for so long. After all, apart from its bloodthirsty disposition, there is so much information about the animal that it is as easy for a zoologist to recognize it as for a peasant to guess a riddle: who runs on two legs, is covered with feathers and cries to the crow?

There is no doubt that the mysterious yara is none other than the ghost tarsier (Tarsius spectrum). This is a small furry animal with a flat face and huge eyes. It can be considered the most mysterious of all primates.

Being among the branches, it can take a stand on its hind legs. Its appearance is so reminiscent of a human that the English anatomist Wood-Jones and his Dutch colleague A. Hubrecht considered it the creature closest to man! Of course, this is an exaggeration, but the animal has outstanding qualities that are unique to it.

He is only twelve to twenty centimeters tall. Huge eyes widened to enhance night vision, at the tips long fingers thickenings with suction cups. The tarsier's foot is so long (hence the animal's name) that, unlike other primates, it is forced to rely only on its toes when walking. But the tarsier jumps beautifully, resembling a furry frog, but its jumps are much easier. Weighing only about 140 grams, it allows him to make two-meter jumps, while rising up to sixty centimeters! Of course, the tarsier is far from toothless, but when it opens its V-shaped mouth, which is quite ominous, it seems that it has no teeth.

The tarsier is the only primate that can be considered completely carnivorous. He sometimes gets to try fruits, but the main food consists of insects, lizards, birds and even small mammals. For them, a tarsier is a bloodthirsty robber.

If we add to the described properties of the tarsier its nocturnal lifestyle, then we can understand why this rare animal has become the subject of all kinds of superstitions.

There is only one reason that prevented zoologists from seeing a ghost tarsier in the Yara. This is that the latter is not found in Australia. It is found only in the Malay Archipelago: Sumatra, Borneo, Sulawesi and several Philippine islands.

Previously, tarsiers were much more widespread than they are now. In the sediments of the early Tertiary period, these strange “little men” are found throughout Europe and North America. But today in Australia there are no placental mammals in the wild - except for those, of course, that were brought by humans, that is, rats, dingoes and others.

Once upon a time, mammals with a placenta replaced marsupials throughout the planet, but were unable to penetrate the “watershed”, that is, the invisible line that zoologists drew between Bali and Lombok, and further north, between Borneo and Sulawesi. In short, they failed to get to either New Guinea or Australia, where marsupials flourished in complete safety before the human invasion.

This is why it is almost incredible that the tarsier could live in Australia. Perhaps solving the mystery of this animal will help shed light on the problem of the origin of Australian tribes, which has been worrying anthropologists for so long. It can be assumed that the legends about the Yara came to the mainland from the islands of Borneo, Sumatra and Sulawesi, were passed down from generation to generation and have survived to this day.

It is undeniable that the tiny tarsier, completely harmless to humans, keeps not only Australia, but the entire Malay region at bay. In addition, it seems likely to me that this same animal gave rise to the legend of the “forest demon”, widespread in the Philippines.

"Animals on Bird Legs"

No matter how amazing the animals from the folklore of Oceania are, a real boom in fantastic tales came after their arrival on the Australian continent white man, so disposed to all kinds of fables. We hasten to add that most of the rumors had a basis in reality.

When in early XVII century, brave Dutch sailors began to explore the Australian seas in search of rich and fertile islands, they had to land on the shores of a seemingly endless land, which they called New Holland out of nostalgic feelings.

In this country, they said, there lives a large animal, like a man, who has a long tail, and the head is small, like a goat's. His hind legs are like those of a bird, and he can hop on them like a frog. In 1640 the first scientific description animal, accompanied by a fantastic drawing.

A century later, Captain James Cook, stopping near the mainland to repair a ship that had hit a reef, took the opportunity to visit the mysterious land. It penetrated deep into the territory in the Trinity Bay area. On July 9, 1770, two men from his crew, one of them the famous naturalist Joseph Banks, went hunting to replenish their meat supplies. As Cook later said, they walked several miles and met four “those very animals on bird legs.” Banks sent his greyhound after them, but she quickly fell behind; thick grass, over which the animals easily jumped, prevented her from running.

Cook soon learned that the natives called the jumper a kangaroo. However, this name was never found in any of the Australian dialects...

The information received from such an educated and meticulous person in his reports as James Cook did not raise doubts, so twenty years later the word “kangaroo” was already used as a scientific name in books on zoology.

But what surprised Cook most of all was that the jumpers carry babies with them in a pocket on their stomachs.

A striking feature of the animal world of Australia soon became clear: all mammals living on the mainland had the same pockets for their young.

Mammals that lay eggs

But even more unexpected surprises awaited the scientific world. In 1797, an animal called the “water mole” was discovered in the southern part of New Gaul. In fact, this strange animal looked more like an otter. He had flippers on his legs. But if membranes between the fingers can be assumed in a mammal, then what could European zoologists say about the presence of a duck beak!

The first stuffed platypus examined by members of the Royal Zoological Society was found to be a fake.

The fact is that animal samples coming from the East were sometimes so skillfully forged by the Chinese that scientists had long been accustomed to “sensational” fakes and looked skeptically at any surprise. How many times have travelers brought mummies of sirens to Europe, who, according to legend, live somewhere in Indian Ocean! In fact, they were made from the body and head of a monkey, the legs of a bird and the tail of a fish. “Water mole”, consisting simultaneously of parts of the body of a bird and a mammal, and this seemed undeniable, belonged to skillful fakes.

Meanwhile, the animal's skin was subjected to careful analysis by Dr. Georg Shaw, who found no traces of glue or other fastening of parts on it. He recognized the remains of the animal as real and in 1799 gave its first scientific description. This is how the unusual animal received the name Ornithorynchus paradoxus, which means “beast with duck feet and beak.”

But it wasn't enough to give unusual creature scientific name. In addition, it was necessary to find a place for it in the taxonomy of the animal world.

Since the animal was covered with fur, no one doubted that we're talking about about a mammal. The German zoologist John Friedrich Blumenbach decided to classify it as an edentate; as a rule, they included all animals that did not fit into the classification.

In 1802, two specimens of platypus arrived in England in alcoholic form. One of the animals was a female, but upon closer inspection, she had no mammary glands! In addition to such an incredible property, “water moles” had a combined anus and reproductive passage, like birds and reptiles.

In the end, the English anatomist Home proposed to classify platypuses in a separate class of classification, which soon included another animal discovered in Australia: the echidna, whose elongated muzzle also resembles a beak.

Matters became even more complicated when rumors began to emerge from Australia that the platypus was laying eggs. This fact confirmed Lamarck’s opinion, according to which monotremes are the ancestors of mammals and are close in many ways to birds and reptiles.

In 1824, another surprise: the German scientist Meckel discovered mammary glands in the platypus! But an animal that lays eggs cannot have mammary glands! Nevertheless, they were there. In 1832, Australian naturalist Lieutenant Mole discovered that the mammary glands of the platypus produce milk. It was only in 1884 that a valid method of reproducing and feeding the offspring of platypuses was established. So surprising to everything scientific world An animal has been found that simultaneously lays eggs and feeds its young with milk.

Once again the rule was confirmed: “impossible” animals can exist in nature.

Bunyip

Who is he bunyip?

Up to the present day, the bunyip has served as a symbol of everything mysterious and terrible that the imagination of a colonist who found himself on an unfamiliar continent could imagine.

It seems to me that the word “bunyip” in the Aboriginal language meant everything that could not be explained using familiar concepts. Similar to our word "demon".

It can be assumed that when asked by white people which of the unknown animals committed this or that atrocity, the Australians answered that it was the work of a bunyip or that it crossed their path.

The strange thing is that this mystical creature, endowed with such powerful abilities, was embodied in the image of not only a specific, but also a rather ordinary animal. True, unknown to science.

The first mention of it dates back to 1801. French mineralogist Charles Bailly, a member of Nicolas Baudin's expedition, and his companions left the bay, which they christened after their ship, to go as far as possible into the unfamiliar continent. Suddenly they heard a devilish roar from the reed thickets of the Swan River, more terrible than the roar of an angry bull. In panic, the colonists fled to the shore, deciding that in the swamps of the new continent there was a monster of incredible size.

Later, researcher Hamilton Hume confirmed the existence of a water monster, but curiously, his evidence refers to an area located in the opposite part of Australia. In Lake Bathurst, he observed an animal that looked like both a manatee and a hippopotamus. Scientists of the Australian Philosophical Society immediately promised the researcher to reimburse all expenses if he managed to obtain the carcass of this animal. But Hume could not do this.

Rumors of this kind came from different points continent, especially from the southeastern regions.

Lieutenant V. Breton wrote: “They say that in Lake George there lives a species of seal that has supernatural powers.”

By the middle of the 19th century, the legend of the bunyip was quite firmly established throughout the continent. Who hasn’t been worried about the mysterious beast, and what kind of miracles have been attributed to it! In 1846, a fragment of a skull was found near one of the tributaries of the Murray, which separates Victoria from southern New Gaul, and was sent to the naturalist W. S. Macleay as the “head of a bunyip.” The scientist concluded that the skull belonged to a foal. In London, a specialist in the field of comparative anatomy, Professor Richard Owen, examined the sample and decided that it was a fragment of a cow’s skull.

One of the experts was mistaken, and since the animal was never identified, it can be assumed that both were mistaken. Unfortunately, the valuable evidence mysteriously disappeared.

In 1848, a dark-colored animal with a head resembling that of a kangaroo was spotted on the Emeralia River. He had a long neck, thick hair on his head and a huge mouth. According to local residents, it was a bunyip who was waiting in the water for his next victim.

In 1872, on Lake Burrumbit, a large animal approached the boat, so that all its passengers rushed to the other side in fear and almost capsized into the water. The beast was described as a water dog. His head was round and devoid of ears.

In 1875, near Dalby in Queensland, a seal-like creature was seen sticking out of the water. It had a double but not symmetrical caudal fin.

In addition, some kind of aquatic monster was registered in Tasmania, that is, outside the Australian continent.

Construction of the Vaddaman Dam and all sorts of changes natural conditions caused by the construction of the Great Lake Power Plant did not get rid of the ever-present water demon. His appearance was celebrated here until recently.

Common seal or new marsupial?

With plenty of evidence of a water-dwelling, short-haired pinniped with the head of a dog and flattened ears, it is difficult not to assume the existence of some kind of freshwater seal.

Many species of pinnipeds live along the sea coasts of Australia and Tasmania. For example, sea dog (Otaria), leopard seal (Leptonyx), sea ​​Elephant(Mirounga). But can these animals get deep into the continent?

Theoretically, they can. There is, after all, a species of seal that is never found in the seas. In addition, it has been established that seals sometimes penetrate into the interior of Australia along the Murray and its tributary, the Darling. Dr. Charles Fenner mentions a case in which a seal was killed at Conargo, near Southern New Gaul, 1,450 kilometers from the mouth of the river. Shot in Shoalhaven in 1870 leopard seal, in whose stomach an adult platypus was found, causing G. Whitley to remark: “A bunyip swallowed a bunyip!”

Thus, it has been established that pinnipeds can cover significant distances in fresh water. Perhaps they could also make short journeys overland. It is noteworthy in this regard that most often the appearance of the water demon is recorded in the southeast, that is, in the territories of the basins of two largest rivers Australia.

As for the heartbreaking screams coming from the reeds, they could not belong to a pinniped, but to a bittern (Botaurus poiciloptius). By the way, she owes it to her voice local name"Murray bull"

However, the appearance of a water demon is sometimes confined to places that no pinniped could reach, even if they wanted to. Therefore, Australian scientists prefer more original hypotheses.

“It is assumed,” writes Wheatley, “that we are talking about a marsupial similar to an otter that has survived to this day.”

Why shouldn't our demon be an aquatic marsupial? And are Aboriginal legends related to the recent existence of Diprotodon, which is believed to have inhabited the rivers, swamps and lakes of the mainland?

Rabbits the size of rhinoceros

Gold miners, scattered across the sandy deserts of the western plateau and the thorny bushes of the central lowland - practically unexplored areas - met large animals that looked like rabbits.

Such reports came so regularly that they finally attracted the interest of scientists, among whom was the famous Australian naturalist Ambrose Pratt. He first asked himself the question: were the three-meter rabbits diprotodons, huge marsupials that were considered extinct? After all, they used to be found in large quantities on the Nullarbor Plain, until the intensifying drought turned a significant part of the mainland into desert. Their skulls found reached a length of one meter. It was even reconstructed appearance Diprotodon. These extinct marsupials are credited with the habits of the tapir: they had to lead a semi-aquatic lifestyle among the lush vegetation that covered the continent at the end of last era glaciation, that is, from twelve to thirty thousand years ago. The drought, which devastated vast territories like leprosy, drove diprotodons from the mainland.

Of course, the huge herbivore initially found refuge in oases that resisted drought. As they dried out, the diprotodon herds moved on to the next source of water.

In 1953, Professor Reuben Stirton of the University of California discovered a veritable diprotodon cemetery in northwestern Australia, containing between five hundred and a thousand perfectly preserved skeletons. It is believed that a herd of these animals gathered on the site of a recently dried lake, covered with a crust hardened in the sun. Under the weight of the herd, the crust could not stand it, and many animals got stuck in the wet mud.

Even if they completely disappeared several thousand years ago, they must have been discovered by the first Australian Aborigines.

Van Yennep believes that oral transmission of information cannot last for any long time, while rumors of animals described as similar to Diprotodon continue to circulate among the aborigines.

After all, Australia was not completely deprived of water. Otherwise, the fate of the “giant rabbits” would have befallen other herbivores, as well as the predators that fed on them. There remained a sufficient number of lakes, streams and swamps on the mainland, near which, like other representatives Australian fauna, diprotodons could continue to exist.

Despite relatively frequent sightings, Australian hunters chasing feral Asiatic buffalo across the grasslands are unable to capture the presumed diprotodon. According to them, animals have the incredible ability to suddenly disappear from sight, leaving only a cloud of dust in place...

Bernard Euvelmans
Translated from French by Pavel Trannois

2 families: platypus and echidnaidae
Range: Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea
Food: insects, small aquatic animals
Body length: from 30 to 80 cm

Subclass oviparous mammals represented by only one order - monotremes. This order unites only two families: platypuses and echidnas. Monotremes- the most primitive living mammals. They are the only mammals that, like birds or reptiles, reproduce by laying eggs. Oviparous animals feed their young with milk and are therefore classified as mammals. Female echidnas and platypuses do not have nipples, and the young lick milk secreted by tubular mammary glands directly from the fur on the mother's belly.

Amazing animals

Echidnas and platypuses- the most unusual representatives of the class of mammals. They are called monotremes because both the intestines and the bladder of these animals open into one special cavity - the cloaca. Two oviducts in monotreme females also exit there. Most mammals do not have a cloaca; this cavity is characteristic of reptiles. The stomach of oviparous animals is also amazing - like a bird's crop, it does not digest food, but only stores it. Digestion occurs in the intestines. These strange mammals even have a lower body temperature than others: without rising above 36°C, it can drop to 25°C depending on environment like reptiles. Echidnas and platypuses are voiceless - they have no vocal cords, and only young platypuses have toothless - quickly decaying teeth.

Echidnas live up to 30 years, platypuses - up to 10. They live in forests, steppes overgrown with bushes, and even in the mountains at an altitude of up to 2500 m.

Origin and discovery of oviparous

Short fact
Platypuses and echidnas are venom-bearing mammals. They have a bone spur on their hind legs, along which poisonous liquid flows. This poison causes in most animals imminent death, and the person has severe pain and swelling. Among mammals, besides the platypus and echidna, only representatives of the order of insectivores are poisonous - the slittooth and two species of shrews.

Like all mammals, oviparous animals trace their origins to reptile-like ancestors. However, they separated from other mammals quite early, choosing their own path of development and forming a separate branch in the evolution of animals. Thus, oviparous animals were not the ancestors of other mammals - they developed in parallel with them and independently of them. Platypuses are more ancient animals than echidnas, which descended from them, modified and adapted to a terrestrial lifestyle.

Europeans learned about the existence of oviparous animals almost 100 years after the discovery of Australia, at the end of the 17th century. When the skin of a platypus was brought to the English zoologist George Shaw, he decided that he was simply being played, the sight of this bizarre creature of nature was so unusual for Europeans. And the fact that the echidna and platypus reproduce by laying eggs has become one of the greatest zoological sensations.

Despite the fact that the echidna and platypus have been known to science for quite some time, these amazing animals still present zoologists with new discoveries.

Wonder Beast platypus as if assembled from parts of different animals: its nose is like a duck’s beak, its flat tail looks like it was taken from a beaver with a shovel, its webbed feet look like flippers, but are equipped with powerful claws for digging (when digging, the membrane bends, and when walking, it folds, without interfering with free movement). But despite all the seeming absurdity, this animal is perfectly adapted to the lifestyle that it leads, and has hardly changed over millions of years.

The platypus hunts small crustaceans, mollusks and other small aquatic life at night. Its tail-fin and webbed paws help it dive and swim well. The eyes, ears and nostrils of the platypus close tightly in the water, and it finds its prey in the dark underwater with the help of its sensitive “beak”. This leathery “beak” contains electroreceptors that can detect weak electrical impulses emitted by aquatic invertebrates as they move. Reacting to these signals, the platypus quickly finds prey, fills its cheek pouches, and then leisurely eats what it has caught on the shore.

The platypus sleeps all day near a pond in a hole dug with powerful claws. The platypus has about a dozen of these holes, and each has several exits and entrances - not an extra precaution. To breed offspring, the female platypus prepares a special hole lined with soft leaves and grass - it is warm and humid there.

Pregnancy lasts a month, and the female lays one to three leathery eggs. The mother platypus incubates the eggs for 10 days, warming them with her body. Newborn tiny platypuses, 2.5 cm long, live on their mother’s belly for another 4 months, feeding on milk. The female spends most of her time lying on her back and only occasionally leaves the hole to feed. When leaving, the platypus seals the cubs in the nest so that no one will disturb them until she returns. At 5 months of age, mature platypuses become independent and leave the mother's hole.

Platypuses were mercilessly exterminated for their valuable fur, but now, fortunately, they are taken under the strictest protection, and their numbers have increased again.

A relative of the platypus, it doesn’t look like it at all. She, like the platypus, is an excellent swimmer, but she does it only for pleasure: she does not know how to dive and get food under water.

Another important difference: the echidna has brood pouch- a pocket on the belly where she places the egg. Although the female raises her cubs in a comfortable hole, she can safely leave it - the egg or newborn cub in her pocket is reliably protected from the vicissitudes of fate. At the age of 50 days, the little echidna already leaves the pouch, but for about 5 more months it lives in a hole under the auspices of a caring mother.

The echidna lives on the ground and feeds on insects, mainly ants and termites. Raking termite mounds with strong paws with hard claws, she extracts insects with a long and sticky tongue. The echidna's body is protected by spines, and in case of danger it curls up into a ball, like an ordinary hedgehog, exposing its prickly back to the enemy.

wedding ceremony

From May to September, the echidna's mating season begins. At this time, the female echidna is using special attention males. They line up and follow her in single file. The procession is led by the female, and the grooms follow her in order of seniority - the youngest and most inexperienced close the chain. So, in company, echidnas spend a whole month, looking for food together, traveling and relaxing.

But the rivals cannot coexist peacefully for long. Demonstrating their strength and passion, they begin to dance around the chosen one, raking the earth with their claws. The female finds herself in the center of a circle formed by a deep furrow, and the males begin to fight, pushing each other out of the ring-shaped hole. The winner of the tournament receives the favor of the female.

• The platypus (lat. Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is a waterfowl mammal of the monotreme order that lives in Australia.
• Australian mammal, similar to a bird both in its nose and in that it lays eggs
• Monotreme mammal
• Mammal, lives in Australia, lays eggs
• A mammal of the monotreme order, the only species of the family. Body length up to 45 cm, tail up to 15 cm. Feet with webbed feet.
• Mammal laying eggs
• The only thing poisonous mammal in the world
• Australian mammal of the cloacal order
• laying mammal
• Australian oviparous mammal
• Australian animal that lays eggs but carries its young in a pouch and sac

BLASTOCYST

• (blastoderm vesicle) stage of development of mammals, animals and humans in the process of crushing a fertilized egg
• Stage of development of mammals, animals and humans in the process of crushing a fertilized egg
• Knuckles the Echidna (Japanese: ナックルズ・ザ・エキドゥナ Nakkuruzu za Ekiduna, English: Knuckles the Echidna) is a character in the video games, television shows and comics of the Sonic the Hedgehog series.
• Spiny marsupial that lays eggs
• A small Australian oviparous cloacal mammal with an elongated snout, covered with spines and hair.
• Mammal with the lowest blood temperature
• Marsupial animal, body covered with spines, lays eggs
• Australian beast, oviparous mammal covered with spines
• Poisonous snake of Australia
• Poisonous snake
• Poisonous Australian snake of the adder family
• Australian venomous snake
• Poisonous snake (obsolete)

Everyone knows from school curriculum about mammals. Did you know that the egg-laying mammal is a separate species of animal that lives only on the territory of one continent - Australia? Let's look at this special kind animals in more detail.

Discovery of oviparous

For a long time the existence of unique animals that reproduce by incubating eggs was not known. The first report of these creatures came to Europe in the 17th century. At this time, the skin of a marvelous creature with a beak and covered with wool was brought from Australia. It was a platypus. The preserved specimen was brought only 100 years later. The fact is that platypuses practically do not tolerate captivity. It is very difficult for them to create conditions during transportation. Therefore, observations of them were carried out only in the natural environment.

Following the discovery of the platypus came news of another creature with a beak, only now it is covered in spines. This is an echidna. For a long time, scientists argued about which class to classify these two creatures into. And they came to the conclusion that the platypus and echidna should be placed in a separate detachment. This is how the order Monotremes, or Cloacae, appeared.

The Amazing Platypus

A unique creature of its kind, nocturnal. The platypus is widespread only in Australia and Tasmania. The animal lives half in water, that is, it builds holes with access to water and land, and also feeds in water. The creature is small in size - up to 40 centimeters. It has, as already mentioned, a duck's nose, but at the same time it is soft and covered with skin. It just looks very similar to a duck. It also has a 15 cm tail, similar to that of a beaver. The paws are webbed, but they do not prevent the platypus from walking on the ground and digging holes well.

Since the genitourinary system and intestines of the animal exit into one opening, or cloaca, it is classified as a separate species - Cloacae. Interestingly, the platypus swims, unlike common mammals, using the front paws, and the hind paws serve as a steering wheel. Among other things, let's pay attention to how it reproduces.

Platypus breeding

Interesting fact: before breeding, animals hibernate for 10 days, and only after that does the mating season. It lasts almost all autumn, from August to November. Platypuses mate in water, and after a period of two weeks, the female lays an average of 2 eggs. Males do not participate later life offspring.

The female builds a special burrow (up to 15 meters long) with a nest at the end of the tunnel. Lines it with damp leaves and stems to maintain a certain humidity so that the eggs do not dry out. Interestingly, for protection she also builds a barrier wall 15 centimeters thick.

Only after preparatory work does she lay eggs in the nest. The platypus incubates eggs by curling up around them. After 10 days, babies are born, naked and blind, like all mammals. The female feeds the babies with milk, which flows from the pores directly along the fur into the grooves and accumulates in them. Babies lick the milk and thus feed. Feeding lasts about 4 months, and then the babies learn to get food on their own. It is the method of reproduction that gives this species the name “oviparous mammal.”

Extraordinary echidna

The echidna is also an oviparous mammal. This land creature is small in size, reaching up to 40 centimeters. It also lives in Australia, Tasmania and the islands of New Guinea. In appearance, this animal is similar to a hedgehog, but with a long narrow beak not exceeding 7.5 centimeters. Interestingly, the echidna has no teeth, and it catches prey with the help of a long sticky tongue.

The echidna's body is covered on the back and sides with spines, which are formed from coarse wool. The fur covers the belly, head and paws and is fully adapted for a certain type of nutrition. She feasts on termites, ants and small insects. She leads daytime look life, although it is not easy to detect. The fact is that she has a low body temperature, up to 32 degrees, and this does not allow her to tolerate a decrease or increase in ambient temperature. In this case, the echidna becomes lethargic and rests under the trees or hibernates.

Echidna breeding method

The echidna is an oviparous mammal, but this was only proven in beginning of XXI century. Interesting mating games echidna There are up to 10 males per female. When she decides she is ready to mate, she lies down on her back. At the same time, the males dig a trench around her and begin to fight for primacy. The one who is stronger copulates with the female.

Pregnancy lasts up to 28 days and ends with the appearance of one egg, which the female moves into the brood fold. It is still not clear how the female moves the egg into the pouch, but after 10 days the baby appears. The cub comes into the world not fully formed.

Young

The birth of such a baby is very similar to the birth of marsupial cubs. They also undergo final development in their mother’s pouch and leave her as adults, ready for independent life. Interesting fact: marsupial mammals are also common only in Australia.

How does a baby echidna appear? He is blind and naked, his hind limbs are not developed, his eyes are covered with a leathery film, and only his front paws have digits. It takes a baby 4 hours to get to milk. Interestingly, the mother has 100-150 pores in her pouch, which secrete milk through special hairs. The baby just needs to get to them.

The baby stays in the mother's pouch for about 2 months. He gains weight very quickly thanks to nutritious milk. Echidna milk is the only one that has pink color due to large quantity it contains iron. Breastfeeding continues up to 6.5 months. Afterwards, the young animals learn to get food on their own.

Prochidna

The echidna is another oviparous mammal. This creature is much larger than its fellows. Habitat is the north of New Guinea and the islands of Indonesia. The size of the echidna is impressive, up to 80 centimeters, and its weight is up to 10 kilograms. It looks like an echidna, but the beak is much longer and the needles are much shorter. It lives in mountainous areas and feeds mostly on worms. The structure of the echidna’s oral cavity is interesting: its tongue has teeth, and with the help of it it is capable of not only chewing food, but, as has been noted, even turning over stones.

This species is the least studied, as it lives in the mountains. But at the same time, it was noticed that the animal does not lose mobility in any weather, does not hibernate, and is able to regulate its own body temperature. Reproduction oviparous mammals, to which the echidna belongs, occurs in the same way as in the other two species. She hatches only one egg, which is placed in a pouch on her stomach, and feeds the baby with milk.

Comparative characteristics

Now let's look at the species of mammals that live on the Australian continent. So, what is the difference between oviparous, marsupial and placental mammals? To begin with, it must be said that all mammals feed their offspring with milk. But the birth of babies has huge differences.

Oviparous animals have one common feature. They lay eggs like birds and hatch them for a certain period of time. After the birth of the offspring, the mother’s body produces milk, which the babies feed on. It should be noted that the cubs do not suck milk, but lick it from the grooves on the female’s abdomen. The absence of nipples distinguishes oviparous mammals from other mammals.

They have a brood pouch, hence their name. The pouch is located on the abdomen of females. The newborn baby, having reached it, finds the nipple and seems to hang on it. The fact is that babies are born unformed and spend several more months in their mother’s pouch until they are fully developed. It must be said that oviparous and marsupial mammals have similarities in this regard. Baby echidnas and proechidnas are also born underdeveloped and are placed in a kind of brood fold.

What about placental mammals? Their babies are born fully formed due to the presence of the placenta in the uterus. Due to it, the process of nutrition and development of the baby occurs. The bulk of animals are placental.

This is the diversity of species that exists on one continent.