The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) or duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. Together with the four species of echidna, it is one of the five extant species of monotremes, the only mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young. The animal is the sole living representative of its family (Ornithorhynchidae) and genus (Ornithorhynchus. The first scientists to examine a preserved platypus body in 1799 judged it a fake, made of several animals sewn together.