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Platypus
Watch the bill, which picks up faint electric fields generated by prey underwater. A platypus shuts its eyes, ears, and nostrils when it dives. The bill helps it find small animals in the mud without seeing them.
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Short-beaked Echidna
Look past the spines and you’ll find one of Australia’s egg-laying mammals. A female carries her egg in a temporary pouch, and the hatchling laps milk from patches on her skin.
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Spotted handfish
This speckled Tasmanian fish uses its modified fins to walk along the bottom. The fins look like little hands, and the fish tends to stay near the seafloor instead of spending its time in open water.
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Leafy seadragon
The leaflike flaps make this fish look like a drifting piece of seaweed. It swims with small, nearly transparent fins, so the leafy silhouette stays convincing even as it moves.
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Satin bowerbird
Look for a twig passage decorated with objects such as blue feathers, bottle caps, or straws. A male builds this bower to court females. The actual nest is built elsewhere.
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Southern cassowary
The helmetlike casque and blue neck make this rainforest bird easy to recognize. Its appetite for fruit matters as much as its looks. It swallows many fruits whole and carries their seeds to new parts of the forest.
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Bare-Nosed Wombat
A bare-nosed wombat leaves cube-shaped droppings. Researchers found that differences in the elasticity of its intestinal walls help create the corners as the material dries and moves through the gut.
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Thorny devil
Look closely at the spaces between this ant-eating lizard’s scales. Tiny channels draw water along the skin toward its mouth, which helps the thorny devil drink in a dry landscape.
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Superb lyrebird
A male sings from a small display mound, with a long tail arched over his head. The song can sound like several birds taking turns because he borrows the calls of other species.
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Red kangaroo
At a slow pace, look at what the red kangaroo does with its tail. It sets the tail down as a fifth limb, using it to help propel the body forward as the hind legs swing through.
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Tasmanian devil
The fierce calls are most conspicuous when devils gather at a carcass. Their strong jaws let them eat parts that many scavengers leave behind, including bones. In Tasmania, that makes this noisy marsupial an efficient cleanup crew.
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Numbat
This striped marsupial is active by day and feeds mainly on termites. It flicks a long, sticky tongue into shallow tunnels to gather them, so the bushy tail and dark eye stripe are only part of what makes it stand out.
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Greater bilby
The long ears are the easiest feature to spot. Digging explains a less obvious one. The female’s pouch opens backward, which helps keep loose sand from being scooped inside as she burrows.
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Western water-holding frog
This frog can spend months underground in a skin cocoon. The cocoon forms from layers of shed skin and slows water loss until rain returns. Look to the temporary pools it inhabits for a clue to why sheltering underground matters.
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Giant Australian Cuttlefish
A giant cuttlefish can change its color and pattern quickly. Its displays can go from camouflage to rippling stripes, especially during courtship. A familiar place to see those displays is the spawning aggregation near Whyalla, South Australia.
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Tiger quoll
Look at the spots on the tail. Of Australia's four quoll species, this carnivorous marsupial alone has white spots that continue from its body onto its tail. During the day it can disappear into a hollow log or a crevice.
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Port Jackson shark
The female lays spiral egg cases. The ridges help wedge each case into cracks in rocks, where it can stay while the young shark develops. The adult has a distinctive dark harness pattern across its body.
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Giant Gippsland earthworm
This long earthworm lives in moist underground burrows in part of Victoria. You may hear a gurgle when it moves through its wet tunnels long before you see the worm itself. The picture shows an identification model from Museums Victoria.
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Maratus volans
The common peacock spider is tiny, but a courting male turns its raised third pair of legs and colorful abdominal fan into a conspicuous display. Up close, you can see the fan moving from side to side as it dances.
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Quokka
The upturned mouth is familiar from photographs. A less obvious skill is climbing. This little wallaby can scramble into shrubs or small trees to reach leaves, even though its usual way of getting around is hopping.
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Koala
The grasping hands have two opposing digits, which help a koala grip branches. Even its fingertips are distinctive. They have ridged prints resembling human fingerprints.
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