this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2024
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Science Memes

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top 43 comments
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[–] DJDarren@thelemmy.club 112 points 2 months ago (1 children)

As a platypus lays eggs and produces milk, it’s the only animal that can make its own custard.

[–] prex@aussie.zone 59 points 2 months ago

And echidnas.

I'm not sure if I'm and echidna custard or platypus custard kind of person.

[–] CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 61 points 2 months ago (2 children)

No stomach? Hadn't heard that one before

[–] regnn@infosec.pub 39 points 2 months ago

If something is too weird, some of the oddities tend to get overlooked.

[–] flora_explora 5 points 2 months ago
[–] Ashelyn@lemmy.blahaj.zone 57 points 2 months ago (1 children)

They also don't have nipples (though do have mammary glands) and mother platypuses basically sweat milk through their skin for the pups to collect off their fur

[–] ramirezmike@programming.dev 23 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] 100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.it 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The milk pools in grooves on the mother's abdomen, allowing the young to lap it up.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 2 points 2 months ago

So I guess that's partly why most mammals' milk glands are in the abdomen. Other than primates, I only know that elephants also have mammaries on the breasts

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 20 points 2 months ago (2 children)

No stomach?! Does food go straight to the colon?

[–] perishthethought@lemm.ee 40 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

I went down this rathole.

They first grind up the bugs they eat in their mouths, then they have a chamber with bacteria which further reduce their food, then their intestines finish the job.

ETA, since you all are such curious cats:

https://wildlifefaq.com/platypus-stomach/

and

https://platypus.asn.au/platypus-myths/

[–] HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com 13 points 2 months ago (2 children)

so whats the chamber between the mouth and intestine called?

[–] perishthethought@lemm.ee 17 points 2 months ago

https://platypus.asn.au/platypus-myths/

The fact is that the platypus’s digestive tract does include a small expanded pouch-like section where one would normally expect a stomach to be located. The platypus’s stomach doesn’t secrete digestive acids or enzymes (Harrop and Hume 1980; Ordoñez et al. 2008), but does produce a mucus-rich fluid to assist nutrient absorption in the intestines (Krause 1971). Following on from the discussion of grinding pads above, it would seem that a platypus masticates food so thoroughly in its mouth that little additional processing is required before food reaches the intestines. Also, because a platypus consumes numerous small prey items over a period of many hours, its stomach doesn’t need to have a large holding capacity to accommodate infrequent large meals.

Sooo, "gullet"?

[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 17 points 2 months ago

A pseudo-stomach? IDK...

I think since it's using bacteria and not acid, it's not a "stomach", just performs the same type of function.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 5 points 2 months ago

Oh, is it like a gizard type of thing sort of?

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Thanks for doing so, did you figure out why they glow?

[–] perishthethought@lemm.ee 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Lol, I think that's only in the cartoon, eh.

Shit your being downvoted, now I have to go look myself.. if I don't return I likely have been abducted by egg laying mammals

[–] 100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.it 25 points 2 months ago

Yes, platypuses lost their stomach during evolution, so they basically grind food using gravel and their beak before sending it to the intestine, which has taken on some of the functions performed by stomachs in other animals. Source

[–] ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

And that's the reason you can only find platypuses in Australia.

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You don’t see them though. The national park boards say “look for ripples in the water!”.

If you see ripples, you’re about to die.

[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

If you see ripples, you’re about to die.

Yeah, but from which threat? Snake? Spider? Swimming kangaroo?

[–] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 2 points 1 month ago

I meant the platypusses, but legit the number of times I’ve just been walking along a path and a snake has started thrashing around in the long grass next to me. All the snakes here are dead-in-eight-minutes type snakes.

[–] psud@aussie.zone 1 points 1 month ago

I would rather Australian risks than those of bears and big cats

Aussie snakes try to keep away from people, they aren't aggressive.

Our spiders are so like those elsewhere (compare Redback to black widow)

You're unlikely to see a kangaroo in water. If you do, keep away from it just like you keep away from wild animals anyway

[–] icedcoffee@lemm.ee 16 points 2 months ago

Ok who’s got pics of the glowing platypus?

[–] blackluster117@possumpat.io 14 points 2 months ago

It's also adorable! Also, the babies are called platypups!

[–] sirico@feddit.uk 13 points 2 months ago

Bin parts build

[–] ASDraptor@lemmy.autism.place 13 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It's a Pokémon. And so far, the only one with at least 4 types: water, poison, flying and electric. How the fuck can you even counter it?

[–] GiveMemes@jlai.lu 7 points 2 months ago

Got a 2x weakness to electric and psychic or a 4x to smackdown>earthquake

[–] Routhinator@startrek.website 3 points 2 months ago

It is the Avatar.

[–] jlow 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

And somehow we haven't driven it to extinction yet? That's wild!

[–] scytale@lemm.ee 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Probably because no one has decided to eat it yet.

[–] thefartographer@lemm.ee 7 points 2 months ago

I'm sure someone has. It probably tastes like popcorn or something

[–] psud@aussie.zone 1 points 1 month ago

Wombats, koala, kangaroo, and emu eggs are easier to catch/find and were the main meat in places where those are common

[–] wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 12 points 2 months ago

I'm curious now how a mammal develops in an external egg. The process seems so weird.

[–] Sabata11792@ani.social 11 points 2 months ago

When you cheat and choose all the perks in the character creator.

[–] Geometrinen_Gepardi@sopuli.xyz 8 points 2 months ago

They also have spikes in their hind legs that they use to deliver an extremely painful venom that can paralyze small animals.

[–] MicrowavedTea@infosec.pub 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] perishthethought@lemm.ee 4 points 2 months ago

Ze Frank is still making videos?

Mind blown, in a good way.

[–] BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz 5 points 2 months ago

Platypussies*

[–] Kwakigra 4 points 2 months ago

And when it hunts underwater it is deaf and blind, sensing electromagnetic signals from its prey with the duck-bill.

[–] Moah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 months ago

YES!! This is the content in here to see.

[–] MrGerrit@feddit.nl 3 points 2 months ago