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Known as a mosaic of animals the platypus is truly one of the strangest animals to walk the earth. Its home is located in
eastern Australia, and lives its live as a semi aquatic mammal. The reason why the platypus is known as the mosaic of animals
is from the many “borrowed” traits it contains. This list includes the tail of a beaver, the duck-like beak, the fur and
feet of an otter, the shoulder joint of a reptile, as well the reptilian ability to lay eggs, making the platypus one of the
only two mammals that lay eggs. The body size of the platypus for males is about fifty to sixty cm long, and females are
slightly smaller measuring about forty to fifty cm long. The platypus has become more of a national symbol in Australia and
has been one of the three mascots for the 2000 Sydney Olympics and is on the back of the Australian twenty cent coin. When
originally discovered in 1798 by Captain John Hunter, a sketch was sent back to England where scientists believed it was not
real. The platypus has one characteristic that no other mammal is able to do; electroreception. Electroreception is used
by the platypus to capture prey by detecting the electrical fields created by muscle contractions.
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