Sensory Mucous Glands Detect Prey

a brown playpus seen from above with a dark brown bill swims though dark water

Biological Strategy

Platypus

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Capture, Absorb, or Filter Organisms

Many living systems must secure organisms for food. But just as one living system must capture its prey to survive, its prey must escape to survive. This results in capture and avoidance strategies that include trickery, speed, poisons, constructed traps, and more. For example, a carnivorous plant called the pitcher plant has leaves formed into a tube that collect water. Long, slippery hairs within the tube face downward. When insects enter the tube seeking nectar, they lose their footing and slide inside, unable to climb out and escape being eaten and digested by the plant.

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Sense Electricity/Magnetism From the Environment

Some living systems use electric or magnetic signals as a way to receive information from their environment. Magnetic and electric fields can help such living systems determine direction, altitude, or location, and electric fields also help living systems find other living systems. Detecting and interpreting electrical and magnetic signals requires specialized techniques. For example, mud-dwelling bacteria use crystals composed of magnetite to sense geomagnetism, which helps orient the bacteria to burrow deeper into the mud.

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Mammals

Class Mammalia (“breast”): Bats, cats, whales, horses, humans

Mammals make up less than 1% of all animals on earth, but they include some of the most well-known species. We know first-hand some of the characteristics that make mammals unique, like having hair, being able to sweat, and producing milk through mammary glands. Another critical shared feature is a set of highly-specialized teeth. Unlike sharks or alligators, for example, whose teeth are generally all the same size and shape, mammals have differently shaped teeth in different areas of the jaws to target specific foods or foraging strategies.

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The bill of the duck-billed platypus aids in the detection of prey via large sensory mucous glands that act as electroreceptors.

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“Both platypus and echidnas possess electroreceptors in their bill to detect weak electric fields generated by the movements of invertebrate prey. The electroreceptors are large sensory mucous glands that are distributed over the entire surface of the platypus bill, and are restricted to the tip of the echidna’s bill.” (Fowler and Miller 2003:279)

“A platypus — which closes its eyes, ears, and nostrils when diving — hunts by being sensitive to the electrical impulses produced by its prey. Tiny electroreceptors cover the platypus’s bill. They are linked to the trigeminal cranial nerve, in contrast to electrosensitive fishes whose receptors are linked to the auditory cranial nerve.” (Shuker 2001:57)

Last Updated October 25, 2016

References

Book

The Hidden Powers of Animals: Uncovering the Secrets of Nature

26/02/2021 | Dr. Karl P. N. Shuker

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Reference

Book

Zoo and Wild Animal Medicine

Fowler ME, Miller RE

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