The oddest of odd animals on earth has to be the platypus. It’s a duck-billed mammal with flippers and a beaver-like tail and is one of only five species of mammals that lay eggs. The females make milk but have no nipples, and the males have venomous spurs on their hind legs. They’re exquisitely sensitive to electrical fields and use special sensory organs in their bills to detect prey in mud and murky water. They also glow under ultraviolet light.
Now, researchers have found that platypuses have pigment-producing intracellular structures more like those in birds than mammals. These help give birds their bright iridescent colors, but the reason for their presence in platypuses — a first in mammals — remains unknown.
It’s just one more mystery to solve in the perplexing platypus.