![]() While the platypus does have a broad, flat tail like a beaver’s tail, the similarity ends there. ![]() In summary, in terms of function, structure, and even external features, the bill of a platypus is very different and easily distinguishable from the beak of a duck. Notice also the nostrils, which are located toward the back of the beak. Just add a layer of keratin and you have a beak. Notice that the bones in the beak have the same shape as the duck beak. The front of the skull is toward the right. Those are the nostrils, which are located toward the tip of the bill. Also, note the two dashed ovals in the bill. Note that the bones of the skull do not fill the bill completely: much of the bill is soft tissue. The view is from above, the front of the skull is pointed up. The nostrils of a duck are located towards the back of the beak while the nostrils of a platypus are located towards the front of the bill. There is also an external feature of the platypus that distinguishes it very easily from that of a duck. It uses these electroreceptors to find its prey in the water. Instead, the bill is full of electroreceptors, structures that are sensitive to changes of electricity in the water. A platypus processes (chews its) food using grinding pads which are located back in the mouth. In a duck, the beak is used for capturing and processing food, so it must be hard to withstand the forces of eating. It is made of soft tissue because it has a different use. Instead, much of the bill of the platypus is composed of soft tissue. The platypus does not have these features. Whether it is the beak of a bird, the beak of a turtle, or even the beak of a dinosaur, the beak is always a hard part with a bony core covered in keratin (a type of protein). Sure, its mouth is called a bill, but it lacks a key characteristic of all beaks: it is not hard. Let me explain.Ī platypus does not have the “beak of a duck.” Technically, it doesn’t have a beak. ![]() For one, the platypus is stranger than “an egg-laying mammal that has the beak of a duck and the tail of a beaver.” For another, “an egg-laying mammal that has the beak of a duck and the tail of a beaver” is not a very “good” description of a platypus. It is an odd hodge-podge of different types of animals.” There is the familiar trope that a platypus is “an egg-laying mammal that has the beak of a duck and the tail of a beaver.” That sums up its weirdness right there, doesn’t it? “We already know why the platypus is unusual. I began wondering, what is one of the more unusual animals? Something that when people learn about it, they think, “That thing is weird”? I also wanted it to be a more “familiar” type of animal, something that, while unusual, is not so exotic as to be a completely different form of animal. Several posts ago, I wrote about placozoans, a unique type of simple animal. Photograph modified from an image found on Wikimedia Commons.
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