#PLURAL OF PLATYPUS MAC OS#

“Expo Oz” the Platypus was the mascot for Expo ’88, which was held in Brisbane in 1988, and Hexley the Platypus is the mascot for Apple Computer’s BSD-based Darwin operating system, Mac OS X. The Platypus has been used several times as a mascot: “Syd” the Platypus was one of the three mascots chosen for the Sydney 2000 Olympics. When it digs in the bottom of streams with its bill, its electroreceptors detect tiny electrical currents generated by muscular contractions of its prey, so enabling it to distinguish between animate and inanimate objects, which continuously stimulate its mechanoreceptors.Įxperiments have shown that the Platypus will even react to an “artificial shrimp” if a small electrical current is passed through it. The Platypus feeds by neither sight nor smell, closing its eyes, ears, and nose each time it dives. Platypuses are one of only two mammals known to have a sense of electroreception. Colloquially the term “platypi” is also used for the plural, although this is technically incorrect and a form of pseudo-Latin the correct Greek plural would be “platypodes”. Scientists generally use “platypuses” or simply “platypus”. There is also no universally agreed plural of “platypus” in the English language.

The platypus has ten sex chromosomes, which resemble those of birds, but uses genes from mammals and reptiles to fertilize and lay its eggs, which are produced from only one of two ovaries (the left one).ĭid you know the platypus is the sole living representative of its family (Ornithorhynchidae) and genus (Ornithorhynchus)? Females nurse their young for three to four months until the babies can swim on their own. The eggs hatch in about ten days, but platypus infants are the size of lima beans and totally helpless. A mother typically produces one or two eggs and keeps them warm by holding them between her body and her tail. The platypus also lactates but has no nipples.įemales seal themselves inside one of the burrow’s chambers to lay their eggs. It is one of only two mammals (the echidna is the other) that lay eggs. Although powerful enough to kill smaller animals such as dogs, the venom is not lethal to humans, but is so excruciating that the victim may be incapacitated The defensin proteins are produced by the immune system of the Platypus. While both male and female Platypuses are born with ankle spurs, only the male has spurs (sharp stingers on the heels of their rear feet) which produce a cocktail of venom, composed largely of defensin-like proteins (DLPs), three of which are unique to the Platypus. Did you know platypuses are one of only seven venomous mammals in the world?

Plural of platypus