ipl-logo

The Platypus: The Evolution Of The Duck Bill

797 Words4 Pages

The Evolution Of The Platypus
Platypus have wonderful features like the duck bill the duck bill has enable the platypus to hear and breathe while diving for it’s prey for platypus being good at swimming and are good diggers.The platypus have adapted to have strong,shovel-like claws that enable them to move and disturb thick,heavy soil and mud they dig in order burrow it’s like making a home for the male and important female to use it for nesting in the burrow.
One of the most distinguishing feature of the platypus is its duck bill. This feature enable the platypus to hear and

breathe while diving for prey. It is remarkably similar to a duck’s bill, hence the name, but it most likely evolved independently

of the duck, despite this similarity.As …show more content…

Two theories have been suggested to explain the way in which the platypus and other monotremes, e.g. echidna, has evolved in relation to two other mammal groups; the marsupials, e.g. kangaroos, and the placentals, which are animals that use a placenta to aid the rearing of their young.The second theory (Theory A) was first proposed by Gregory (1947), but did not become popular until the 1970s (Hamilton, 1988). His proposal was that at some point between 135 and 65 million years ago, the monotremes and the marsupials separated from the placentals, causing them to evolve in a different way as we know as today. The evidence to support Gregory’s theory is that the reproductive processes of both the marsupials and the monotremes have a remarkable similarity. The embryos of both groups are at some stage encased in a shell during the gestation period. In the case of the monotremes this occurs for the whole gestation period, but for marsupials the shell is only present for two thirds of the gestation period.The Aboriginal population had known about the platypus for many centuries. But it was not until 1797 that the Europeans discovered them.The first scientific examination and description of the platypus was made by George Shaw.He gave the platypus the name - Platypus anatinus. He published his findings in Naturalist 's Miscellany vol X in 1799.So the platypus are crechers that live in long period in time.They might be very old

Show More
Related

Riversleigh Fossil Site, Australia

2212 Words | 9 Pages

reptilian lung The most distinctive features of birds is their lungs. Bird’s lungs are small and rigid, but are are highly efficient and meet the metabolic needs of flight. Respiration in birds is unique and involves a set of nine air sacs packed between muscles. The air sacs contain blood vessels and do not undertake oxygen exchange, but rather function like bellows to move air through the lungs. While fossils generally do not preserve soft tissue such as lungs, a very fine theropod dinosaur fossil has been found in which the outline of the visceral cavity has been well preserved.

Read More

Zo 222 Week 2 Research Assignment

1073 Words | 5 Pages

NAME: ZIYANDA.Q SURNAME: NANGU STUDENT NUMBER: 201502675 DUE DATE: 21-09-17 MAMMAL ORDER ASSIGNMENT ZOO 222 INTRODUCTION All species existence continues through reproduction. Without reproduction, life on earth would be terminated, every species would have been extinct by now. It is also said that reproduction is the basis and purpose of all life (Savage, 2016).For a species to continue to exist, it must reproduce.

Read More

Cattle Primate Observation Report

308 Words | 2 Pages

It was also determined that prehensile tailed platyrrhines had more pronounced and convex articular surface curvatures. Greater contour curvatures on intervertebral articular surfaces are associated with an increased range of flexibility and mobility of the caudal vertebrae, benefiting prehensile primates that use their tails in a variety of complex movements. Hence, through analyses of the morphology of caudal vertebrae, specifically their articular surface area and curvature, it was concluded prehensile and non-prehensile tails could be distinguished according to these structural features. Both of these characteristics relate to effective use of the tail during locomotion. This article is useful towards my GEM as it describes differences in bone structure of the tails of prehensile and non-prehensile primates, and explains the reasons that certain variations confer advantages to prehensile tail

Read More

Ap Biology Chapter 1 Answer Key

1260 Words | 6 Pages

The discovery of this mammal was proof that mammals had lived alongside the dinosaurs. It gave scientist a small glimpse into ancient mammal species. Chapter 6– Questions

Read More

Martin Glassner's Your Inner Fish: Chapter Seven

697 Words | 3 Pages

To put this into perspective, paleontologists scale life’s history down to an earth year in which humans did not appear until the very last day of the calendar year. In fact, most of life has consisted of single-celled organisms. The first bodies were not even really seen until the 1920s, and when they were finally discovered, people didn’t even pay much attention, that is until Martin Glassner came around. Glassner, after observing the findings of Martin Gurich and Reginald Sprigg, proved, without a doubt, that their fossils where 15 million to 20 million years older; these fossils came from the Precambrian period, a period thought to to be absent of life. Some of these fossils resembled primitive creature such as jellyfish and sponges, but the patterns found on some of the others matched absolutely zero living creatures.

Read More

Compare And Contrast Directional Selection And Disruptive Selection

732 Words | 3 Pages

Vertebrates are known to be animals with backbones. Tooth reduction is one of the major evolutionary trends that developed among major vertebrate groups that allowed for the transition from aquatic to terrestrial life. Evolution of limbs and being able to breath air are other evolutionary trends that took placeThese trends include improved respiration and protective and insulating body coverings. More over the transition from water to land also included changing to more efficient reproductive methods like having a placenta for some animals or egg layers for other animals. Lastly, the morphology of organisms evolved such that for land they would have paired, muscular appendages used for crawling and

Read More

The Influence Of The Purgatorius

372 Words | 2 Pages

They were believed to have become tree dwelling in the later species. The discovery of the anklebones is substantial because paleontologists had only the animal’s teeth and jaws to study. The anklebones were found in the

Read More

Primate Observation Report

429 Words | 2 Pages

This theory considers the movement of life from the ground into the trees as the most important catalyst in the evolution of the ancestral primate. The essential features of the primate evolved because they were necessary and therefore had greater fitness for creatures swinging from branches. The visual predation hypothesis does not seek to debunk the arboreal hypothesis, but takes note that other arboreal mammals have not evolved in the same way as primates. Cartmill pointed to animals like the squirrel which does not have features such as advanced care of young.

Read More

Should Internationalism Be Pursued Essay

491 Words | 2 Pages

To What Extent Should Internationalism be Pursued? “The most tragic paradox of our time is to be found in the failure of nation-states to recognize the imperatives of internationalism.” Earl Warren (14th Chief Justice of the USA) The author of this source is explaining the fatal flaw in how nation states are governed. This fatal flaw is the neglection and underuse of internationalism.

Read More

Paleogeography: Devonian Extinction

1103 Words | 5 Pages

The evolution of advantageous traits in these two taxa would have made it much easier for them to prey on the placoderms. In addition to predation, the new adaptations exhibited by the ray-finned and cartilaginous fishes could have make them more efficient at capturing prey items that the placoderms may have had sole access to in the past (Carr, 1995). Pressure by predators as well as competitive pressure would have made it much harder for the placoderms to deal with other changes in the

Read More

The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian By Sherman Alexie

474 Words | 2 Pages

In the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie there's hope and dream occurring also everywhere in books, in the news, people's talk about it, and through people's lives. Junior is a cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation, he born with a lot of medical problems. Junior always gets picked by everyone else on the reservation but not his best friend Rowdy. Junior is determined to find hope, Junior leaves the reservation to attend Reardan an all-white school because of this act he a traitor in his reservation. Junior endures the tragedies of his Grandma and his dad's friend Eugene deaths.

Read More

Jurassic Park Phenotypes

669 Words | 3 Pages

This article stood out to me because I used to want to be a Paleontologist and I am also a big fan of the Jurassic Park movies. This article takes a look at the Velociraptor and the genetic makeup as well as phenotypes that it displays. A recent discovery showed that the real Velociraptor was a lapdog-sized predator covered in feathers. In Jurassic park the velociraptors are shown as raptors that are bigger than humans and have a rough scaly skin. If you look at the arm bones of Velociraptor you can see a row of bumps, identical in size and shape to the quill knobs of living birds: the anchor points for big wing feathers...”

Read More

Evolution Of The World's Most Famous Human Fossils Sparknotes

1040 Words | 5 Pages

In discovering Neanderthals (August 1856), this led scientists to other important yet simple questions such as, “Where had Neanderthals come from? What did their culture and technologies look like? And why did they die out?” (Pyne 19). This is important because the findings of new fossils bring up important questions to solve the overall question of where did humans come

Read More

Ean's Writing: The Electric Eel Story

496 Words | 2 Pages

here is Ean 's writing: The Electric Eel Story Electric eels are related to catfish. Electric eels are mammals. They need to come up to the water surface to breathe in air. They live in murky streams around the Amazon river.

Read More

Arctic Tundra Essay

1108 Words | 5 Pages

The term “community” is defined by our textbook as being, an assemblage of species interacting with one another within the same environment. A community can also be summarized by saying that the entire group species in a specific region or smaller area is considered a community, with this definition of community having respect to population diversity along with the location within the ecosystem. A community not limited to one species in particular, although it is limited to one specific area or location. When speaking of community one must know for sure exactly what given area of the ecosystem is being discussed. First of all, the Tundra is broken into two different parts which are the Alpine Tundra and the Arctic Tundra.

Read More

More about The Platypus: The Evolution Of The Duck Bill

Related Topics

Open Document