Fun facts about Platyparians:
- We have venom spurs on our webbed feet.
- We have relatively poor hearing and sight. In fact, we can actually seal off our eyes, ears and nostrils with folds of skin. This allows us to focus on electrical impulses and mechanical waves around us to hunt. We use our bill for this.
- Though we are mammals, we are unique in the fact that we lay eggs, rather than live birth.
- We walk on our knuckles, rather than the bottoms of our feet. We aren’t exactly known for our dexterity. In fact, walking takes about twice as much energy as swimming for this reason.
- Even though we don’t have teats, we do produce milk with some very powerful antibacterial and antiviral by essentially secreting it out through special patches of our skin, much like sweating.
- We don’t have a stomach. We don’t need a stomach.
- We scoop up food and gravel in our mouth, store them in cheek pouches and then eat later by using the gravel to grind our food up with our bill. Like improvised dentures!
- We use nails in our webbing to help us run as well as to burrow.
- Our females seal themselves in a chamber of the burrow to lay eggs. They stay there, sealed off with the newborn eggs until they hatch, about 10 days later.
- We can’t hold our breath very long
- We have a very high constitution and are incredibly cute!
