What Scientists Learned from the Oldest Wild Platypus Ever Found

The platypus, a unique egg-laying mammal native to Australia, faces many threats in the wild: climate change, predators, pollution, floods and shrinking freshwater habitats. For males, mating is a dangerous affair that involves wounding one another with their sharp, venomous spurs.But scientists recently identified a male platypus that was just shy of 24 years old, the oldest recorded age for a platypus living in…