Today’s interesting fact has to do with the platypus, often referred to as the duckbilled platypus.

This is one of the five species of Monotremes that are still with us.

A Monotreme is an egg laying mammal that nurses its young.

Unlike placental or marsupial mammals which have two sex chromosomes, one pair; the platypus has ten sex chromosomes, five pairs.

There is no agreed plural of the word platypus.

Platypuses is sometimes used as is platypi but the first is by English rules and the second is pseudo-Latin.

The name platypus is derived from Greek, so the correct plural is really platypodes.

Today’s interesting fact has to do with Birds and how they breathe.

Birds have a more efficient breathing system than mammals do.

Birds have up to nine air sacs in their bodies, which help reduce their overall weight but also both store air and act like bellows allowing fresh air to constantly flow through the lungs during each cycle of inhale and exhale.

Mammals use a bidirectional airflow in their lungs which moves the air in and out. This means that air that has been depleted with oxygen is mixed with fresh air with every breath.

Birds because of the way their lungs and air sacs are designed breathe with a unidirectional airflow, so that the air makes a circuit in the lungs. This means that air is never mixed, and is always fresh.