But genetically, it is a mixture of mammals, birds, and reptiles. “Indeed, the platypus belongs to the Mammalia class. The platypus belongs to an ancient group of mammals-monotremes-which existed millions of years prior to the emergence of any modern-day mammal. “It holds the key as to why we and other Eutheria mammals evolved to become animals that give birth to live young instead of egg-laying animals.” The platypus lays eggs and nurses its babies At the same time, decoding the genome for platypus is important for improving our understanding of how other mammals evolved-including us humans,” says Guojie Zhang, professor in the biology department at the University of Copenhagen. “The complete genome has provided us with the answers to how a few of the platypus’ bizarre features emerged. It has baffled scientists ever since Europeans first came upon it in the 1700s. Mapping the complete genome of the quirky duck-billed platypus reveals how it became what many consider the world’s oddest mammal.Īustralia’s beaver-like platypus exhibits an array of bizarre characteristics: it lays eggs instead of giving birth to live babies it sweats milk has venomous spurs and is the only animal to have 10 sex chromosomes.
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