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 he platypus is one of a very few venomous mammals. Two species of Caribbean solenodon and a few species of shrew use poisonous saliva to subdue prey, often larger than themselves, but the platypus has something completely different and of unknown function. Rear-ankle spurs are found in all three species of monotreme. With their associated glands, they are known as the crural system. In females of all species of monotreme the spur is lost during the first year of life. Although the spurs and glands persist in male echidnas of both species, echidnas do not seem to use the system to inject venom; the platypus does. Changes in the structure of the spur in male platypuses can be used to age animals up to 15 months after they have left the breeding burrow. Fully grown adult spurs are around 15 millimeters (2 inch) in length, can be everted away from the ankles, and can be driven into an object by the action of the muscles of the rear legs. The puncture alone is painful, but the venom i...

 Long-beaked and short beaked echidnas are animals with a snout modified to form an elongated beak-like organ. They have no teeth, a long protrusible tongue and, in addition to normal hair, they have a number of special hairs on the sides and back which are modified to form sharp spines. The long-beaked species, at 45 to 90 centimeters (18 to 35 inches) in total length and 5 to 10 kilograms (11 to 22 pounds) in weight, is much larger than the short-beaked species, which is only 30 to 45 centimeters (11 to 18 inches) long and 2.5 to 8 kilograms (6 to 18 pounds) in weight. In the short-beaked echidna, males are larger than females. In both species only the male retains the spur on the ankle of each rear leg. Distribution The status of the long-beaked echidna is in doubt, as the area of its distribution is poorly studied. The short-beaked echidna is distributed throughout mainland Australia and Tasmania, where its status can be regarded as common. In Papua New Guinea it is still co...

 The first marsupials probably fed mainly on insects and other small invertebrates, as do the least specialized of the living opossums, dasyurid s, and possums. It was a comparatively simple step in evolution for the larger dasyurids and the thylacine to graduate to preying upon vertebrates. The greatest insect-eating specialization is found in the striped possums, which use their sharp and protruberant lower incisors to dig into branches to expose burrowing insect larvae, which are then extracted with the claw of a very long, thin, fourth finger. A lemur-like primate, the aye-aye of Madagascar, feeds in a remarkably similar manner. No marsupial feeds entirely upon fruits, but many opossums , possums, and even some dasyurids, include these in an omnivorous diet. Gliders of the genus Petaurus feed partly on insects but also on the gum the flow of and sap of trees, promoting sap from eucalypts by cutting grooves into the trunk with their sharp lower incisors (a method of feeding als...