The platypus's mammary glands lack teats, with milk released through pores in the skin. The milk pools in grooves on the mother's abdomen, allowing the young to lap it up.[16][71] After they hatch, the offspring are milk-fed for three to four months.
It's thought that this was the ancestral state, and that specialized ducts (eventually nipples) evolved later on eutherian mammals.
Edit: I recognized my error moments later when I realized that marsupials have nipples too. So this evolved after marsupials and eutherians split from monotremes.
4 Comments
kibiz0r@midwest.social · 25 pts · 1y
You didn’t have to post this
1D10@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 1y
No but I told my wife and she stopped talking to me, so I figured everyone should know.
vatlark@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 1y
Wow, TIL.
https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Platypus
AmidFuror@fedia.io · 4 pts · 1y
It's thought that this was the ancestral state, and that specialized ducts (eventually nipples) evolved later on eutherian mammals.
Edit: I recognized my error moments later when I realized that marsupials have nipples too. So this evolved after marsupials and eutherians split from monotremes.