Australia
of years later by the colonists.
Australia is,in fact, a continent-sized museum of ancient animals, modernised along certain
lines by their own separate evolution. Two of the strangest animals in the world are the spiny
anteater and the platypus. They are reptilelike mammals. They have hair like cats and dogs
but they lay shelled eggs like snakes and turtles. Their babies are born from eggs but drink
milk from their mothers. The ecidna (spiny anteater) eats ants which it catches with its long
fat tongue. The platypus has a wide bill like a duck and a wide flat tail. It swims well but it
can only stay under water for a few minutes. First it shuts its ears and eyes.
Another group of Australian mammals, the marsupials, are less like reptiles than the spiny
anteater and the platypus, but they are not highly developed mammals either.
The kangaroo is born after seven weeks inside its mother
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