The platypus is a near-threatened species from eastern Australia and Tasmania. The platypus is considered to be a mammal because it grows hair, has mammary glands, and three bones in the middle ears. Their beaks are filled with electrical sensors that help them find prey - insects and shellfish in the muddy rivers it roams. Males carry a venomous spur behind each hind leg, which might be deployed when they fight another male for territory. These egg-laying animals have fur that glows under UV light and carry ten sex chromosomes, unlike any other animal.
New methods have shown that platypus has ten sex chromosomes. / Credit © Doug Gimesy
Scientists have now sequenced the platypus genome, and this genetic data has provided new insights into how this semiaquatic, toothless animal evolved. The work has been reported in Nature.
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