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60 free Platypus trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The platypus is the animal that made British scientists reach for their scissors to check for stitches, and this platypus trivia quiz leans into every one of its oddities. It covers the biology (why it lays eggs, how its bill senses electricity, what the male's venom spur does, why it has no stomach and no teeth, why it has ten sex chromosomes and glows under ultraviolet light) and its life story from a 17 mm leathery egg to a four-month-old 'puggle'. It also takes in the platypus in human history: the 1798 pelt sent to London, George Shaw's Platypus anatinus, William Caldwell's 1884 egg discovery, the wartime platypus sent to Winston Churchill, the 20-cent coin, the Sydney 2000 mascot and Perry the Platypus from Phineas and Ferb, plus its conservation status today. Every question was checked against a primary reference (mainly the Wikipedia article on the platypus) before publication and carries a citation, so it is safe to use in class or at quiz night. If you enjoy it, try our koala and Australia quizzes next.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The platypus is one of only five living species in which group of egg-laying mammals?
Monotremes
The other four are all echidnas; every other mammal on Earth gives birth to live young.
Q 02Which other animals are the only egg-laying mammals alive alongside the platypus?
Echidnas
There are four echidna species; molecular clocks suggest the platypus split from them roughly 19-48 million years ago.
Q 03What did the first scientists to examine a preserved platypus in 1799 conclude?
That it was a fake sewn together from several animals
George Shaw literally took scissors to the pelt looking for stitches; Robert Knox suspected Chinese sailors had made it.
Q 04Which sense do platypuses use to find prey with their eyes, ears and nostrils shut underwater?
Electrolocation
About 40,000 electroreceptors in the bill pick up the tiny currents made by a shrimp's muscles; they will even attack an 'artificial shrimp' carrying a current.
Q 05Where is the male platypus's venomous spur located?
On each hind foot
Both sexes are born with the ankle spurs, but only males keep them into adulthood and use them fighting rivals in the breeding season.
Q 06The common name 'platypus' comes from Greek words meaning what?
Flat-foot
By those Greek roots the correct plural would be 'platypodes'; 'platypi' is pseudo-Latin.
Q 07Why was George Shaw's original genus name Platypus dropped in favour of Ornithorhynchus?
A beetle already had it
Johann Blumenbach independently described the animal as Ornithorhynchus paradoxus in 1800, and that genus name stuck.
Q 08The scientific name Ornithorhynchus anatinus literally means what?
Duck-like bird-snout
Ornith- is 'bird', rhynchos is 'snout' and anatinus is Latin for 'duck-like'.
Q 09What unofficial name is used for a baby platypus?
Puggle
'Platypup' is also used unofficially; there is no formal term.
Q 10What colour does platypus fur glow under ultraviolet light?
Cyan and green
The biofluorescence may hide it from UV-sensitive predators in low light; it is also the only mammal known to have hollow hair-pigment melanosomes.
Q 11Which mammals are the only ones more densely furred than the platypus?
Otters
The waterproof coat traps a layer of air that keeps the animal warm in and out of water.
Q 12How does the platypus's tail differ from a beaver's?
It is furry rather than scaly
The tail stores fat reserves and works as a rudder; Aboriginal hunters prized it as the fattiest, most nutritious part.
Q 13How does a platypus protect its front webbing when walking on land?
It folds them up and knuckle-walks
Webbing is more extensive on the front feet, which do all the propulsion when swimming.
Q 21Where in the male platypus's body is its venom produced?
In glands in the thighs
The kidney-shaped glands connect to the ankle spur; the spurs are weapons in fights between males over mates.
Q 22On which Australian island was a platypus population introduced in the 1920s?
Kangaroo
About 150 lived in the Rocky River area of Flinders Chase National Park before the 2019-20 bushfires tore through it.
Q 23What is unique about the platypus's swimming style among mammals?
It paddles with alternating front-foot strokes
Q 14Adult platypuses have no teeth. What do they use to grind food instead?
Heavily keratinised pads
Young platypuses do have a few molars but lose them around the time they leave the burrow.
Q 15Which internal organ does the platypus lack a functional version of?
A stomach
It is missing the genes needed to make pepsin, the stomach's protein-digesting enzyme.
Q 16What is the platypus's average body temperature?
About 32 °C
That is a full five degrees below the placental-mammal norm, and it can keep feeding in water below 5 °C.
Q 17Roughly how much does an average male platypus weigh?
1.7 kg
About 50 cm long; females are noticeably smaller at around 900 g, and animals get bigger the further south you go.
Q 18Besides the platypus and its egg-laying cousins, which is the only mammal known to have electroreception?
The Guiana dolphin
The platypus's brain map is dominated by its bill in the same way a human's is dominated by the hands.
Q 19Roughly how many electroreceptors are arranged in the skin of a platypus's bill?
40,000
Cortical cells receive input from both electro- and touch receptors, so the platypus may literally feel electric fields as touches.
Q 20How long can the pain from a platypus sting last in humans?
Months
The venom, made largely of defensin-like proteins, causes swelling and then a heightened sensitivity to pain called hyperalgesia.
The webbed hind feet and tail are used only for steering; dives average about 35 seconds.
Q 24In one study, how long did platypus dives last on average?
35 seconds
Surfacing intervals averaged just 13 seconds between dives.
Q 25What is the longest a platypus has survived in captivity?
Up to 30 years
Wild animals have been recaptured at 24 years old, remarkable for something the size of a small cat.
Q 26Which fish is among the platypus's natural predators?
Murray cod
Goannas, carpet snakes, eagles, saltwater crocodiles and red foxes also take them.
Q 27Who confirmed in 1884 that the female platypus really does lay eggs?
William Hay Caldwell
Early European naturalists refused to believe it; the same Caldwell later described the uterine development of the koala.
Q 28How many eggs does a female platypus normally lay?
Two
They are small and leathery, about 17 mm long, and hatch after roughly ten days of external incubation.
Q 29How long is a platypus egg incubated outside the mother's body?
About 10 days
The eggs first develop inside her for around 28 days; she then curls around them in the burrow.
Q 30How does a mother platypus deliver milk to her young, given she has no teats?
Through pores in her skin
The young lap the milk from her fur; it is thicker than placental-mammal milk.