platypus• The only other type of mammal to employchemicalwarfare is the duck-billed platypus.• The male of the duck-billed platypus has sharp poison-spurs on its hindlegs.• The duck-billed platypus is an even more astonishing animal.• One must remember, too, that Patrick Barrington's literaryplatypus was herself employed in the ForeignOffice!• The male platypuspossesses on its hind legs a large, reversiblespur.• The mystery with the platypusvenom is why it evolved.• The platypus, along with its cousins the echidnas, is an egg-laying mammal yet suckles its young on milk!