platypus (redirected from Ornithorhyncus)

platypus

an aquatic animal of the order Monotremata, found only in Australia. It resembles a beaver, being about 12 to 16 inches long, covered with fine red-brown to gray fur, with a broad, dorsally flattened tail, webbed and clawed paws, and a broad flat, duck-like beak. It lives in a burrow that has an underwater entrance. It lays eggs, hatches them and feeds the young from milk which is discharged through the skin in a skinfold. Called also duckbill, duckmole, Ornithorhynchus anatinus.