Fauna of Australia species are nocturnal and many arboreal. Two of the five living species of monotreme occur in Australia: the platypus and the short-beaked echidna. The monotremes differ from other mammals in their methods of reproduction; in particular, they lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young. The platypus—a venomous, egg-laying, duck-billed amphibious mammal—is considered to be one of the strangest creatures in the animal kingdom. When it was first presented by Joseph Banks to English naturalists it was thought to be so strange that it was a cleverly created hoax. The short-beaked echidna is similarly strange, covered in hairy spikes
Mammals of Australia an endangered marine species that inhabits the waters of northeastern and northwestern Australia, particularly the Torres Strait. It can grow up to long and weigh as much as . The dugong is the only herbivorous marine mammal in Australia, feeding on sea grass in coastal areas. Ten species of seals and sea lions (superfamily Pinnipedia) live off the southern Australian coast and in Sub-Antarctic Australian territories. Mammals of Australia The mammals of Australia have a rich fossil history, as well as a variety of extant mammalian species, dominated by the marsupials, but also including monotremes and placentals. The marsupials evolved