They first grind up the bugs they eat in their mouths, then they have a chamber with bacteria which further reduce their food, then their intestines finish the job.
The fact is that the platypus’s digestive tract does include a small expanded pouch-like section where one would normally expect a stomach to be located. The platypus’s stomach doesn’t secrete digestive acids or enzymes (Harrop and Hume 1980; Ordoñez et al. 2008), but does produce a mucus-rich fluid to assist nutrient absorption in the intestines (Krause 1971). Following on from the discussion of grinding pads above, it would seem that a platypus masticates food so thoroughly in its mouth that little additional processing is required before food reaches the intestines. Also, because a platypus consumes numerous small prey items over a period of many hours, its stomach doesn’t need to have a large holding capacity to accommodate infrequent large meals.
I went down this rathole.
They first grind up the bugs they eat in their mouths, then they have a chamber with bacteria which further reduce their food, then their intestines finish the job.
ETA, since you all are such curious cats:
https://wildlifefaq.com/platypus-stomach/
and
https://platypus.asn.au/platypus-myths/
Oh, is it like a gizard type of thing sort of?
so whats the chamber between the mouth and intestine called?
https://platypus.asn.au/platypus-myths/
Sooo, “gullet”?
A pseudo-stomach? IDK…
I think since it’s using bacteria and not acid, it’s not a “stomach”, just performs the same type of function.
Thanks for doing so, did you figure out why they glow?
Lol, I think that’s only in the cartoon, eh.