Why Do Platypuses Lay Eggs?

Why Do Platypuses Lay Eggs?
Author: Patricia Fletcher
Publisher: Gareth Stevens Publishing LLLP
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2017-07-15
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 1538204045

"The dictionary definition of a mammal says that mammals give birth to live young, but that's not always true. Echidnas and platypuses, while still technically mammals, lay eggs. Why they do so is one of the strangest adaptations of mammals on Earth. Readers explore this and many other incredible and bizarre adaptations of all kinds of mammals, including the purpose of milk teeth and the hairy truth about camouflage and the coats of many animals. Full-color photographs showcase each adaptation for curious readers as they absorb information about life cycles, predator-prey relationships, and more from the main content."

Platypus Matters

Platypus Matters
Author: Jack Ashby
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2022-08-04
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 022678925X

"Naturalist and Assistant Director of the Museum of Zoology at the University of Cambridge, Jack Ashby shares his love for the platypus and other Australian mammals, including wombats, echidnas, and kangaroos. Informed by stories of his experiences meeting living marsupials and egg-laying mammals on fieldwork in Tasmania and mainland Australia and his close contact with thousands of zoological specimens collected for museums over the last 200 years, Ashby's book explains historical mysteries and debunks myths about these mammals and especially the platypus-which lays eggs, feeds its young on milk, has venom spurs, and sports a bill that can detect electricity. In evaluating how humans have considered these special mammals, he makes clear that calling these animals "weird" or "primitive"- or incorrectly implying that Australia is an "evolutionary backwater"-has only added to the challenges for their conservation. One outcome of these descriptions is that Australia now has the worst mammal extinction rate of anywhere on Earth. Ashby argues that many of the ways that the world thinks about Australia's mammals can be traced back to the country's colonial history"--

The Platypus

The Platypus
Author: Tom Grant
Publisher: UNSW Press
Total Pages: 86
Release: 1984
Genre: Nature
ISBN:

Platypuses: Mammals That Lay Eggs

Platypuses: Mammals That Lay Eggs
Author: Caitlind L. Alexander
Publisher: Learning Island
Total Pages: 25
Release: 2017-08-13
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN:

A duck billed platypus is one of the strangest animals on Earth. There is no other animal like it. It looks like a beaver with a big duck bill on its face and big fat paws. A platypus is covered in fur. Their fur is soft. It is also waterproof. It keeps their skin from getting wet when they swim. Find out more about this amazing animal in this 15-minute book. Reading level: 3.4 Ages 7 to 10

Platypus

Platypus
Author: Ann Moyal
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2004-10-29
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9780801880520

Eloquent and concise, Platypus uncovers the earliest theories and latest discoveries about this delightfully odd member of the animal kingdom.

Ecoviews

Ecoviews
Author: Whit Gibbons
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Total Pages: 223
Release: 1998-03-20
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0817309195

"The book celebrates the intrinsic worth of all plants and animals in order to motivate people in a unified effort to preserve the Earth's rich array of life forms."--Cover.

An Account Of The English Colony In New South Wales

An Account Of The English Colony In New South Wales
Author: David Collins
Publisher:
Total Pages: 512
Release: 2008-03
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 1406827274

WITH REMARKS ON THE DISPOSITIONS, CUSTOMS, MANNERS, etc. OF THE NATIVE INHABITANTS OF THAT COUNTRY. TO WHICH ARE ADDED, SOME PARTICULARS OF NEW ZEALAND; COMPILED, BY PERMISSION, FROM THE MSS. OF LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR KING.

The Ancestor's Tale

The Ancestor's Tale
Author: Richard Dawkins
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 696
Release: 2004
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780618619160

A renowned biologist provides a sweeping chronicle of more than four billion years of life on Earth, shedding new light on evolutionary theory and history, sexual selection, speciation, extinction, and genetics.

The World's Most Pointless Animals

The World's Most Pointless Animals
Author: Philip Bunting
Publisher: Quirky Creatures
Total Pages: 82
Release: 2021-07-20
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 071126239X

The World’s Most Pointless Animals is a witty, quirky, colorfully-illustrated book featuring fascinating facts about some very silly animals…who we find are perhaps not so pointless after all. From familiar animals like giraffes (who don’t have any vocal cords) through to those that surely should not even exist, such as the pink fairy armadillo (absurdly huge front claws, super tough protective shell in baby pink, particularly susceptible to stress), our planet is full of some pretty weird and wonderful animals. For example: Koalas spend up to 18 hours a day asleep! Pandas are born bright pink, deaf, and blind. Dumbo octopuses flap their big fin-like ears to move around. A Narwhal’s tusk grows through its upper lip—ouch! With hilarious text throughout and bright, contemporary illustrations, this guide to absurdly awesome animals contains funny labelled diagrams and some excellent made-up Latin names (n.b. the jellyfish’s scientific name is not actually wibblious wobblious ouchii). Carrying an important message of celebrating diversity and differences, The World’s Most Pointless Animals inspires a drive to conserve our amazing planet and the creatures we’re lucky enough to share it with. Quirky Creatures is a series dedicated to seeking out the weird and wonderful denizens of the natural world and explaining why they are so strange, from the ridiculous to the truly terrifying. Also available in this series is The World's Most Ridiculous Animals and The World's Most Atrocious Animals.