Last week Thomy had to write the plural of platypus as part of his homework and he came to me for help. Platypi is the correct form, -i being the masculine plural Latin suffix. I'll bet his teacher wasn't looking for that one.
Octopus means eight feet; platypus means flat foot. These words come from Greek but have been transformed to Latin.
We talked about the genus name, Ornithorhyncus, and how it means bird nose. The platypus belongs to a group of animals called Monotremata, meaning one hole. The monotremes have only one urogenital opening, like birds and reptiles, which they use to lay eggs and to do other things. Very cool.
I think they look like floating gummy bears.
Of which, I believe, there are only two surviving examples: The platypus and the echidna. Both very weird animals and indigenous to Australia.
ReplyDeleteThey only survived in Australia because it was the only continent not invaded by placental mammals, Homo sapiens excluded. They have trouble competing.
ReplyDelete