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I would have put money on those being found in Australia. Seems like everything venomous lives there. I would have lost - South Asia.
by sparrish 6y ago
I would have put money on those being found in Australia. Seems like everything venomous lives there. I would have lost - South Asia.
- bigbubba 6y agoDon't despair, Australia still has venomous mammals, namely male platypuses (platypi?)
- legerdemain 6y agoOther than lorises and platypuses (for the armchair pedant -- platypodes), the only other clade of venomous mammals I know of are the solenodons of Cuba and Hispaniola.
- throwaway894345 6y agoI remember learning as a child that some shrews are venomous. > Shrews are unusual among mammals in a number of respects. Unlike most mammals, some species of shrews are venomous. Shrew venom is not conducted into the wound by fangs, but by grooves in the teeth. The venom contains various compounds, and the contents of the venom glands of the American short-tailed shrew are sufficient to kill 200 mice by intravenous injection. One chemical extracted from shrew venom may be potentially useful in the treatment of high blood pressure, while another compound may be useful in the treatment of some neuromuscular diseases and migraines.[10] The saliva of the northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda) contains soricidin, a peptide which has been studied for use in treating ovarian cancer.[11] Also, along with the bats and toothed whales, some species of shrews use echolocation. Unlike most other mammals, shrews lack zygomatic bones (also called the jugals), so have incomplete zygomatic arches. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrew https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrew
- rfreytag 6y agoNYTimes has an article on the Solenedon: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/01/science/solenodons-venom.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/01/science/solenodons-venom....
- spdegabrielle 6y agoAre Monotremes mammals?
- saagarjha 6y agoThey are indeed.
- bigbubba 6y agoShort answer: Yes. Longer answer: discrete categorization of life is going to be messy, but that's our fault; humans are obsessed with discrete classification and attempt to apply such classifications to systems which aren't so simple. Clearly monotremes are similar to other mammals in many respects but very different in others. In trying to determine whether or not platypuses are mammals, you're really question the nature of the manmade discrete category of 'mammal', not the nature of platypuses themselves. Platypuses remain the same no matter how we choose to classify them.
- ncmncm 6y agoSuper-great answer. And applies to all animals of any stripe. And plants, fungi, bacteria, archaea, and viruses. Are peaches and cherries the same species? What definition would you like to use? Cabbage and broccoli? Yes. West and east African elephants? No, it turns out. Quaggas and zebras? Yes, it turns out.
- btilly 6y agoYes. But all surviving monotremes live in and around the water, in places where they mostly compete with marsupials. Marsupials have an advantage on dry land. But if a marsupial mother with babies in her pouch swam, she'd drown them. So monotremes have an advantage in the water. Placentals, of course, usually outcompete both. With occasional exceptions, such as the success of opossums in North America.
- legerdemain 6y ago> all surviving monotremes live in and around the water Wait, what? The surviving monotremes are the platypus and several species of echidna. The echidnas are woodland animals without any particular aquatic adaptations.
- pvaldes 6y agoEurasia has some aquatic shrews also able to produce a neurotoxin.
- lsaferite 6y ago> Scientists know of just five other types of venomous mammals: vampire bats, two species of shrew, platypuses and solenodons (an insectivorous mammal found in Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Haiti).
- ashtonkem 6y agoIs there any type of pedant that isn’t an armchair pedant?
- legerdemain 6y agoA pedant who uses a standing desk.