Question 1
Class: Mammalia Linnaeus, 1758
Subclass: Prototheria
Order: Monotremata Bonaparte, 1837
Family: Ornithorhynchidae Gray, 1825
Genus: Ornithorhynchus Blumenbach, 1800
Species: anatinus Shaw, 1799
Binomial name
Ornithorhynchus anatinus (Shaw, 1799 )
Question 2
Describe the morphological features (external) uniquely distinguishing the platypus.
The most unique feature of the platypus is the soft and pliable bill. The bill surface is perforated with openings that contain nerve endings, which allow the animal to locate food and aid movement under water. These pores contain two types of sensory receptors: mechanoreceptors, which respond to tactile pressure, and electroreceptors, which respond to electric fields. The eyes and ear openings are located behind the bill in a muscular groove, which contracts and closes as the platypus dives (Griffiths, 1998). The nostrils are positioned towards the tip of the bill and are slightly elevated upwards to allow breathing whilst the body is beneath the surface (Figure 1).
The platypus is sexually dimorphic in that males of the species are larger in size than females. Size variation within populations from different regions is also evident, with smaller platypuses in general being found in north Queensland compared to Tasmania. Additionally, each male bears a horny spur on the ankle of the hind leg reaching roughly 1.5 cm in length. This spur is connected to a venom glad and is used to fight for females and ensures spatial separation.
The platypus is covered with a thick water-resistant fur, excluding its bill and feet. It’s body it streamlined, has short limbs and webbed forefeet to propel itself through water using an alternative kicking motion. The webs on the for...
... middle of paper ...
...in platypus populations by washing platypuses out of their burrows leading to downing in the rapid flows or injury when struck by debris (Hall, 1999). Young may also drown if he earth plugs erected by females proves insufficient in preventing water entry into the burrow. Flooding can also disturb the riffle-pool sequence of a stream, which in turn disrupts foraging activities.
The platypus is highly specialised and dependent on water bodies to acquire food. With increasing incidence of drought across Australia survival of platypus populations is uncertain. Those of the population inhabiting marginal pools are more susceptible to drought, likely suffering considerable mortality, Also, decrease in water level increases the likelihood of death by terrestrial predators, such as foxes, due to the animals inability to move quickly from one pool to another (Hall, 1999).
Study done from the available fossils show that the body of Liopleurodon was very streamlined and adapted to swimming. Its body had four limbs which were paddle-like in shape. These paddle shaped limbs acted like propellers which made it
The results from the experiments supported the hypothesis that the batoid pelvic girdle shape correlated with the type of locomotion. They found that the form of locomotion utilized by the batoid had a greater determining factor on the shape of the pelvic girdle compared to the phylogeny. An important discovery of this experiment showed that the shape of the pelvic girdle of a batoid can be used to predict the swimming and punting mode, and the order to which the vertebrate
The mudpuppy to me is one of my favorite animals that live under water. The mudpuppy is related to amphibians. One thing that makes the mudpuppy different is that their gills never go away like other amphibians gills do. There gills kind of look like bushes underwater just swaying around. According to “National Geographic” they say that, “mudpuppies are easily distinguishable by their bushy, red external gills, which they grow as larva and never lose. They have flat heads, wide tails, stubby les, and feet with four distinct toes. Their bodies are gray or brownish-gray with blue- black spots” (1). They have almost all the same characteristics as salamanders do: like toes and the patterns on their bodies. According to the book “A Natural History of Amphibians” the authors Robert C. Stebbins and Nathan W. Cohen talk about the skin of amphibians and they said,
Today we will be taking about the Duck Billed Platypus, we will be seeing that makes them different. The first thing we will start out with is their appearance. The Platypus has brown waterproof fur and a flat tail like a beaver they also have a bill and webbed feet like a duck. They next thing I will talk about a Platypus diet. A Platypus mainly eat insects and larvae, shellfish, and worms but because Platypus have no teeth they use gravel they scoop up to break up there food. Platypus are also Carnivore meaning they only eat meat or flesh. Next we will talk about the Platypus defenses. When swimming the Platypus have folds of skin covering their eyes and ears to prevent water from entering, and the nostrils close with a watertight
At first glance platypuses seem to be an amalgamation of mammals, birds, and everything in between. In fact, their reproduction biology also has much in common with a variety of animals—reptiles, birds, placentals and marsupial mammals. Platypuses belong to a group of animals called monotremes. These egg-laying mammals have been a mystery to researchers since their discovery by Westerners over 200 years ago. The first specimens of platypuses brought back to England were thought to be hoaxes similar to mermaids (Moyal, 2001). Found only in and around Australia, there are only three living species of monotremes: the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) and two species of echidnas (Tachyglossus aculeatus, and Zaglossus bruijni).
Out of the three, habitat loss is considered to be the largest threat to the Arctic Fox population. Due to rising temperatures, sea ice is not as abundant and new plant species are beginning to emerge. Sea ice is important to the Arctic Fox population because they rely on the extra space to find food and there are fewer predators (2). Because the sea ice habitat provides important winter food resources for the Arctic foxes, especially in low lemming population years, the loss of the sea-ice habitat is likely to result in lower winter survival and reproductive success for Arctic fox population. Due to the decrease in food resources, Arctic Foxes may start to wander into human settlements in search of food which will increase the chance of foxes being killed by human inhabitants. A decrease in food resources and hunting grounds is not the only issue with the loss of sea ice habitats. According to the Species Survival Commission, as ...
Fox, R. 2001. Invertebrate Anatomy OnLine: Artemia Franciscana. Lander University. http://webs.lander.edu/rsfox/invertebrates/artemia.html, retrieved February 13, 2011.
Gould, Edwin, George McKay, and David Kirshner. Encyclopedia of Mammals. San Francisco, CA: Fog City, 2003. Print.
The aftermath of El Niño on Darwin 's finches was the result of more than two thousand finches. Also, the wetness resulted in a game change for the Tribulus and for the finches who ate small-seed crops.
Marchant, S. and P.J. Higgins. Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1990.
They have water-repellent fur to keep their warm, webbed feet, and ears and nostrils that close
Holcomb, D. 2005. "Pseudoryx nghetinhensis" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed March 14, 2014 at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Pseudoryx_nghetinhensis/
...W, Rotstein DS, Rowles TK, Simmons SE, Van Bonn W, Weathersby PK, Weise MJ, Williams TM, Tyack PL (2011) Deadly diving? Physiological and behavioral management of decompression stress in diving mammals. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Biological Sciences. 279:1041-1050
Birds of Prey, known as raptors are a highly successful bird group. There are over 500 species of Falconiformes, (Falcons), Accipitriformes (Hawks) and Strigiformes (Owls). Raptor is a Latin based word, meaning ‘to seize, snatch, tear away; to plunder’. True to this meaning, these birds hunt and feed on other animals. ‘In Ornithology, the definition for "bird of prey" has a narrower meaning: birds that have very good eyesight for finding food, strong feet for holding food, and a strong curved beak for tearing flesh.’ (Perrins & Middleton, 1984, p. 102) Most have strong curved talons as well. Many species of Raptors, are noticeably disparate in size between male and female. Earhart and Johnson (1970 p.260) believe that species that regularly attack and kill birds or mammals as large as themselves have the greatest dimorphism. The male is smaller, which is rather unusual in the animal kingdom. This is called Reverse Sexual Dimorphism (RSD). There are two prominent theories for small males and three varying hypothesis for the female raptor being bigger than the male, sometimes as much as half again as
In our world today we have approximately 26,021 endangered species. Endangered species are organisms that may possible become extinct. The term 'endangered species' refers to all species that fits this description. However some conservation biologists and scientists normally use the term ‘endangered species’ to refer to species that are put on the IUCN(International Union for Conservation of Nature)Red List. Many factors can be looked at when considering the conservation status of a species. Factors such as human threats or environmental threats can cause a species to become endangered.