{"id":15528,"date":"2026-04-30T12:53:52","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T07:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=15528"},"modified":"2026-05-01T14:33:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T09:03:44","slug":"platypus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/platypus\/","title":{"rendered":"Platypus"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Platypus Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New fossils from South Australia reveal a new species of ancient platypus that still had teeth \u2013 something modern platypuses lost long ago. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Platypus<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The platypus is a<\/span><b> semi-aquatic egg-laying mammal endemic<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to <\/span><b>eastern Australia.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientific Name: Ornithorhynchus anatinus\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Platypus <\/b><b>Habitat<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Platypuses occur in <\/span><b>freshwater systems from tropical rainforest lowlands and plateaus <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of far northern Queensland <\/span><b>to cold, high altitudes of Tasmania <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and the <\/span><b>Australian Alps.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When not foraging, the platypus spends most of the time in its burrow in the bank of the river, creek, or a pond.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Platypus <\/b><b>Features<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>duck-billed<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> platypus&#8217;s head and body grow to about 38 centimeters and its tail grows to about13 centimeters long.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Platypus is well adapted for a semi-aquatic lifestyle.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Its<\/span><b> streamline body <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and a <\/span><b>broad, flat tail <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">are covered with <\/span><b>dense waterproof fur, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">which <\/span><b>provides excellent thermal insulation.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The platypus<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">propels itself through the water by using its<\/span><b> front, short, webbed limbs,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the <\/span><b>partially webbed hind feet<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> act as rudders.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It uses its<\/span><b> tail for storage of fat reserves<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the strong claws on its feet for burrowing and moving on land.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition, <\/span><b>males possess<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a horny spur on their ankles, which is connected to a <\/span><b>venom gland<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the upper leg, making the Platypus <\/span><b>one of the few venomous mammals.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Platypus <\/b><b>Conservation Status<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>It is classified as <strong>&#8216;Near Threatened&#8217;<\/strong> under the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/iucn-red-list\/\" target=\"_blank\">IUCN Red List<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><strong>:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.earth.com\/news\/fossil-australia-platypus-species-obdurodon-insignis-reveals-it-once-had-teeth\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>EAR<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Platypus is a semi-aquatic egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia. Read more about Platypus, Habitat, Features, Conservation, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":100963,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7233,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-15528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-platypus","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15528"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101016,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15528\/revisions\/101016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}