Australia | 1988 | 20 Cents | Platypus

 



Platypus




The Platypus is an egg-laying, semiaquatic mammal native to eastern Australia and the only living member of its genus and family. Alongside echidnas, it is one of the five extant monotremes and uses electrolocation to hunt underwater. Males possess venomous spurs. Its unusual features once puzzled early European naturalists, but it is now an important species for evolutionary study and a cultural symbol for Aboriginal peoples and Australia. Formerly hunted for its fur, the platypus is now protected, though it remains vulnerable to habitat loss, pollution, and climate change, and is considered near threatened.


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