Because hypnosis allows people to use more of their potential, learning self-hypnosis is the ultimate act of self-control. While there is general agreement that certain effects of hypnosis exist, there are differences of opinion within the research and clinical communities about how hypnosis works.
Echidnas and the platypus are the only egg-laying mammals, known as monotremes. The neocortex makes up half of the echidna's brain, compared to 80% of a human brain. Due to their low metabolism and accompanying stress resistance, echidnas are long-lived for their size; the longest recorded lifespan for a captive echidna is 50 years, with anecdotal accounts of wild individuals reaching 45 years.
Animals have been laying eggs for millions of years; snails, fish, and many other critters produce eggs from which their young hatch. The egg of the reptile is a special kind of egg. It has a shell to help prevent drying, and a series of membranes that surround the developing chick. This kind of egg is unique to the amniotes, a group that includes turtles, lizards, birds, dinosaurs, and mammals. The last name in that list, the mammals, may have surprised you since most mammals do not lay eggs, but the earliest mammals laid eggs, and a few, such as the duck-billed platypus still do.