Provides a fact sheet that gives basic information about this animal. Tasmania is the island State of Australia. It lies 240 kilometres south of the Australian mainland. Located between 40 degrees S and 43.30 degrees S, it is surrounded by the Southern Ocean to the south and west, the Tasman Sea to the east and Bass Strait to the north. Tasmania comprises numerous islands, from the Furneaux Group in the northeast, down to Macquarie Island located far south of Tasmania at 55 degrees S.q The platypus, with its duck bill and webbed feet, is a unique Australian animal. It and echidnas are the only monotremes or egglaying mammals to be found on earth. The marsupials mammals with pouches, e.g. kangaroos and eutherians placental mammals that give birth to well developed young, e.g. humans both give birth to live young. The monotremes have lower body temperatures than other mammals and have legs which extend out, then vertically below them, resulting in a gait that resembles a reptilian waddle rather than a straightline gait. These features, together with their egglaying, are more like that of a lizard than a mammal.

Website: http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/index.aspx?base=4789