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How do baby platypuses drink milk without nipples or teats?
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platypus
The duck-billed platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), or duckbill, is common in the waterways of eastern Australia.
Unlike most mammals, female platypuses do not possess nipples or teats to feed their young. Instead, they secrete milk from specialized mammary glands onto their skin.12
The baby platypuses, or hatchlings, obtain the milk by suckling from special mammary hairs located on the mother's abdomen. The milk pools on the mother's skin and fur, allowing the young to lap it up. This method of nourishment is one of the unique features of the monotremes, a group of egg-laying mammals that also includes the echidna.21