By taking a closer look at their milk, we've characterised a new protein that has unique antibacterial properties with the potential to save lives."Īs platypus don't have teats, they express milk onto their belly for the young to suckle, exposing the mother's highly nutritious milk to the environment, leaving babies susceptible to the perils of bacteria. "The platypus belongs to the monotreme family, a small group of mammals that lay eggs and produce milk to feed their young. ![]() "Platypus are such weird animals that it would make sense for them to have weird biochemistry," CSIRO scientist and lead author on the research published in Structural Biology Communications, Dr Janet Newman said. Aboriginal people in different regions have different names for the animal, including mallingong, boondaburra, and tambreet. The first and one of the most famous of these sculptures is Serbian artist Vladimir Mati-Kuriljov’s ‘platypus baby’. And hey, we think they’re pretty cute, even if they don’t look like baby Yoda. The discovery was made by replicating a special protein contained in platypus milk in a laboratory setting. Platypuses ( Ornithorhynchus anatinus) are monotremes, a type of egg-laying mammal with mammary glands and a flat beak. A real baby platypus, which is actually known as a puggle, has teeny-tiny eyes, a flat head and silky-smooth looking short hair. Now a team of researchers at Australia's national research agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Oganisation (CSIRO), and Deakin University have solved a puzzle that helps explain why platypus milk is so potent - bringing it one step closer to being used to save lives. In 2010 scientists discovered that platypus milk contained unique antibacterial properties that could be used to fight superbugs. Due to its unique features - duck-billed, egg-laying, beaver-tailed and venomous- the platypus has long exerted a powerful appeal to scientists, making it an important subject in the study of evolutionary biology.
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