Platypus
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© National Archives of Australia
The Platypus is one of the most unusual looking mammals alive today, with its duck-like beak and webbed feet, marsupial pouch and underwater habits. When the pelt of the platypus was presented to European Scientists in 1798, they thought it was a hoax. Belonging to a peculiar order of mammals called the Monotremes, the semi-aquatic platypus is one of only two mammal species that lay eggs and its population is still widespread throughout New South Wales waterways. This uniquely Australlan creature is the animal emblem of New South Wales and appears on the twenty cent coin.
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