Monotreme - Blog Posts
My first draft of a starter Pokemon's final evolution: Platytreme (Water/Poison)
Ornithorhynchus anatinus - Detail of Bill
The monotremes (egg-laying mammals) are the only mammalia with any sort of electroreception ability, and the platypus’ ability is far stronger than that of the echidna. They use neither sight nor smell while hunting for their food, which consists of small crustaceans and molluscs buried in lakes and slow-moving river bottoms. The platypus finds its food by sweeping its broad bill back and forth along the sediment, and the receptors that line the front and part of the sides of the bill pick up the electric field given off by its prey. It then uses its paws (with the flipper-ish part folded back) to dig out its snack.
Illustrations from the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, Vol. I: Mammalia. 1848-1860.