Platypus

The Weirdest Mammal 

PLATYPUS is small, amphibious mammal has a tail like a beaver, a body like an otter, walks like a reptile, has webbed feet and a beak like a bird, and it lays eggs!

Males are also venomous. They have sharp stingers on the heels of their rear feet and can use them to deliver a strong toxic blow to any foe.

Platypuses spend most of their time alone, sleeping or eating. Platypuses sleep up to 17 hours per day.

They have amazing snout. It is actually quite soft and covered with thousands of receptors that help the platypus detect prey.

They feed in the water at night, frantically swimming around with their eyes and ears closed( nostrils close with a watertight seal) , using their bill to search for their  food.

In this posture, a platypus can remain submerged for a minute or two and employ its sensitive bill to find food.

Their mouth has no teeth. Platypuses don't eat underwater. They store their food in their cheeks and bring it to the surface to eat.

On land, platypuses move a bit more awkwardly. However, the webbing on their feet retracts to expose individual nails and allow the creatures to run.

Platypuses are eaten by a wide array of Australian predators, including dingoes, foxes, large snakes, and even eels.

Each animal will maintain several burrows, usually dug in areas where there are overhanging branches and exposed roots to disguise the entrance.

Females seal themselves inside one of the burrow's chambers to lay their eggs. A mother typically produces one or two eggs and keeps them warm by holding them between her body and her tail.

The eggs hatch in about ten days, but platypus infants are the size of lima beans and totally helpless. Baby platypuses grow a temporary egg tooth to help them break out of their egg.

Mother platypuses don't have nipples like most mammals. They suckle their hatchings by secreting milk onto their fur from two milk patches on their stomach.

FAST FACTS

TYPE:         Mammal

Diet:          Carnivore (insects and larvae, shellfish, and worms)

Size:           Head and body, 15 in (38 cm); Tail, 5 in (13 cm)

Weight:     3 lbs (1.4 kg)

Lifespan:      Survive up to 20 years

Habitat:       Swamps, lakes, and rivers of eastern Australia and parts of Tasmania.

The Earth's Shape

What is the shape of the Earth?

Is your answer is round or sphere. If so, I am sorry kids you are wrong.

The Earth is said to be oblate spheroid shape.  It is sort of flattened out at the north and south poles and bulges a bit at the equator. Is your answer is round or sphere. If so, I am sorry kids you are wrong.

The Earth is said to be oblate spheroid shape.  It is sort of flattened out at the north and south poles and bulges a bit at the equator. The bulge results from the rotation of the Earth.This causes the diameter at the Equator to be 43 km larger than the pole-to-pole diameter.

What happens if you take a ball of pizza dough in your hands and begin spinning it in the air? As the dough spins around in quick circles, centrifugal forces tug at the sides of the dough. This causes it to become flatter and flatter. The sides of the ball push further out until you have a flat disk rather than a ball. 

Pizza dough is soft and easily flattened with just a small amount of force. Our planet is not soft. Its outer layers are made up of a hard shell-like crust of rocks and dirt. Even though the Earth rotates much faster than the ball of pizza dough, the Earth still remains relatively round. However, this spinning of the Earth does make it somewhat less round at the top and bottom. The difference is real but barely noticeable, making the Earth look more like a slightly flat basketball.

Why leaves change its colour when they fall?

Changing Of Fall Foliage.

Leaves are plant’s food factories. Plants take water from the ground through their roots. They take a gas called carbon dioxide from the air. Plants use sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and glucose. Glucose is a kind of sugar. Plants use glucose as food for energy and as a building block for growing. The way plants turn water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and sugar is called photosynthesis. That means "putting together with light." A chemical called chlorophyll helps make photosynthesis happen. Chlorophyll is what gives plants their green colour.

As summer ends and autumn comes, the days get shorter and shorter.  During winter, there is not enough light or water for photosynthesis. The trees will rest, and live with the food they stored during the summer. They begin to shut down their food-making factories.

Thus the absence of sunlight and cooler temperature makes the green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves. As the bright green fades away, we begin to see yellow and orange colours  Small amounts of these colours have been in the leaves all along. We just can't see them in the summer, because they are covered up by the green chlorophyll.

Other chemical processes produce the brilliant reds, purples and bronzes. On warm fall days, sugar is produced in the leaves of some trees and then trapped by the chill of night. As sugar accumulates, the leaves turn brighter red.

Sample Essay 3 - My Friends

MY FRIENDS

I am very glad to share about my most favourite topic "My Friends".

Where-ever we go we make friends. But only few are very special to us. Some friends will become more important in our life. I like to share about my two close friends Vinay and George.

Vinay is one of my best friend. He is same class of mine. He is very tall and thin. Vinay is very studious boy. He spent more time in reading books. He is very fond of Gerinimo Stilton story books. He also created reading habit in me. We like to spend time together in library reading books. He also shares books with me. He is very talented in maths and he always guide me in maths.

George is my another friend. We live in same apartment. We usually meet in the ground every evening. we play together. He is very active and studious boy too. He likes to watch television. He will talk very polite and share his play things with me.

Finally I like to share this valuable quotes for my  best friends,

"Don't walk behind , I may not lead

Don't walk in-front of me, I may not follow,

Just walk beside me, and be my best friend."