Jack Ashby

Right.

So the reason it was problematic is that female platypuses only, like anything, only have large mammary glands whilst they're actually lactating.

So people kept catching platypuses that...

They couldn't find the mammary glands.

They couldn't find the nipples.

Therefore, not a mammal.

But it turns out that they spread to cover pretty much the whole of their bellies and even up around on their backs.

Really?

Their milk glands.

And then they sweat them out into these little milk patches on their undersides.

And the babies lap them up from there.

And actually, if you think about it, platypus is, I guess, the most famous for their bills, right?

Yeah.

You can't suckle with a bill.

So you can't attach yourself to a nipple with a bill.

So if they did have nipples, they would never have evolved beaks is my contention, I guess.

So how do they latch on?

All they're doing is basically kind of sucking it up from wicked fur.

Right.

So the milk goes into the fur and they kind of lap it up from there.