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Welcome to Miss Melissa’s Critter Corner. This month we are going to learn about a creature that is very unique in the world of animals: the platypus.

  • The platypus has a bill like a duck, webbed feet, and a flat tail like a beaver
  • Platypuses have a thick coat of brown fur that helps to keep them warm and dry while swimming around, sort of like a wetsuit that a scuba diver would wear.
  • The most distinctive feature of a platypus would be their duckbill which, believe it or not, is not hard but soft and covered with receptors that help it detect their prey, aka dinner.
  • Dinner for the platypus consists of frogs, worms, fish, shellfish and mollusks
  • The males have venomous barbs on their back feet called spurs that they use against other males during breeding season
  • This mammal is found near the Tasmanian region of Australia
  • This mammal does not give birth to live young but instead lays eggs!

Books in our Catalog

Do You Really Want to Meet A Platypus by Cari Meister

A child goes on an adventure to Australia in search of a duck-billed platypus, which is hard to spot in the wild.

Platypus: A Century Long Mystery by William Caper

  • What in the world is it?
  • Send more bizarre creatures!
  • Is it real?
  • Bird, reptile, or mammal?
  • Very shy animal
  • Some lucky … but not enough
  • Solving the mystery
  • From eggs to babies
  • Platypus prey
  • Learning more all the time
  • Tracking the Platypus today
  • Still a puzzle
  • Platypus facts
  • More uncommon animals

Platypuses by Karen Lachana Kenney (Vox Book)

Platypuses are some of the worlds weirdest mammals! They may look strange, but their duck bills and flat bodies help them thrive in the wetlands. These are just a few of the many adaptations explored in this leveled title for young readers. Alongside the text are bright photos and special features that highlight the animals range, physical adaptations, and diet. Readers will come away with a new understanding of fascinating platypuses!

  Platypuses by Sara Louise Kras

Simple text and photographs present platypuses, how they look, where they live, and what they do.

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