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What the hell is a platypus?

SimonJ1966 said:
If its good enough for North America to have Big Foot then its good enough for us to have Yowies.

I have yet to see any grainy, blurry video evidence, but plenty of drunken campers swear they have seen one!! There is a clear relationship between alchohol intake and sightings - much like alien space craft.

Beware of the Yowie!
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Actually there recently WAS some video evidence and it was of the grainy, blurry variety too! Shot in Katoomba, it looked a hell of a lot like someone in a Chewbacca costume.
 
Meffy said:
Latin words ending in the suffix "-us" routinely change it to "-i"
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To be achingly classical, in Latin it actually depends on which declension
a noun is in. A noun that ends in -us in the nominative singular can end
(depending on declension) in any of -i, -us, -es, -ora in the nominative
plural. But, like you say, "this aint Latin"
 
Gents, could you remember to cite your source if you quote from an external reference? I often like to go and read the source material if it's only a click away, for instance. I know this is almost a tongue-in-cheek thread, but the evolution of the platypus and its taxonomy is interesting stuff (monotreme, who'd a thunk it?). It's just a courtesy. No biggie.
 
It inspired one of my favourite poets: Ogden Nash

The Platypus

I like the duck-billed platypus
Because it is anomalous.
I like the way it raises its family
Partly birdly, partly mammaly.
I like its independent attitude.
Let no one call it a duck-billed platitude.
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Flange Desire said:
andyandy: It's true!
but drop-bears aint.
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Actually, they may have been.

Fossil records have discovered semi-arboreal relatives of the Koala that were carnivourous.

http://www.abc.net.au/ozfossil/megafauna/fauna/fauna.htm
http://www.riversleigh.qld.gov.au/rfc/mammals.html

Not quite Drop Bears, but not something you'd want to have jumping out of a tree at you.

And then there are the ever popular Horned Kangaroos, Giant Kangaroos, and Giant Wombats the size of a small horse.

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s888112.htm
 
TX50 said:
To be achingly classical, in Latin it actually depends on which declension
a noun is in. A noun that ends in -us in the nominative singular can end
(depending on declension) in any of -i, -us, -es, -ora in the nominative
plural. But, like you say, "this aint Latin"
Click to expand...

Romanii Eunt Domus.
 
From Mr. Bungle Disco Volante


Platypus

Ornithorhynchus anatinus - platypus

Sleeping geology
On the isolated shore
For millions of years

Experimental continent
On purpose or accident?

Mysterious evolving
Problem solving

A vaudeville? A nation including one superior creation
A vertebra? Inverted...quite unheard of...

Orphan in a family
And a sole survivor
He's a living fossil

Reptillian? Mammalian
He's a bird-beaked, beaver-butt Australian

Amphibious? Paradox wearing plaid socks
Furry beetle? A bugbear, and a palezoologist's nightmare
Symmetrical physique of disbelief

The platypus has the brain of a dolphin
and can be seen driving a forklift in his habitat of kelp
He is the larva of the flatworm
and has the ability to regenerate after injury

No relation to the flounder.

Someone shipped him to the blokes
Who said he was a hoax
So they cut him to pieces, wrote a thesis

A cranium of deceit, he's prone to lie and cheat;
It's no wonder -- a blunder from down under

Duckbill, watermole, duckmole!

Barnacle
 
Intelligent Design Committee

ponderingturtle said:
Exactly, the work of committees need to be more broadly worked into ID theory to explain for all of the pointless design flaws that have been made in animals.
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I think in the case of ID, a committee would have been a better, more efficient decision than allowing one person, who obviously failed basic science, to do it all.

It would be harder to designate the blame for many natural oddities.

LOL
 
Oldpossum said:
Interesting Platypus trivia, Did you know that the Venom from the Male Platypus, specifically targets mammalian pain receptor cells?
(To be more accurate, its primary target is platypus pain receptor cells.)
Being stung by a male Platypus, is one of the more painfull events you can ever experience, and as an aside, All Opiates (Heroin, morphine, etc..), or any other regular analgesics, such as asprin, are ineffective at blocking this pain.

Oh, And I have often seen platypus in the wild, so I personally know, that they are a real animal!:)
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Yeah, but have you ever been stung?
 
Hmmm ...

Do the platypus's unusual characteristics closely match those of the other monotremes?

If so, I'd argue that monotremes really belong in a separate class from mammals. (But then again, it seems likely that dinosauria should also be a class separate from reptiles.)
 
tracer said:
Hmmm ...

Do the platypus's unusual characteristics closely match those of the other monotremes?

If so, I'd argue that monotremes really belong in a separate class from mammals. (But then again, it seems likely that dinosauria should also be a class separate from reptiles.)
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http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/monotreme.html

Mammals are basically defined as animals that feed their young milk (is. have mammory glands). Monotremes are very different from other mammals, but close enough that they are still mammals and not a different class. There are only three species of monotreme and yes, they are all fairly similar (eggs, poison, no teeth,...).

Classes only refer to modern animals that are alive now, since obviously a common ancestor of two different classes could not be described as being in either one. This means dinosaurs can't be classed as reptiles, since this would imply they are modern reptiles, which clealy isn't true. In fact, since there are so many varied dinosaur species I suspect that they would include more than one class if defined when they were alive, especially towards the end of their existence.
 
Cuddles said:
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/monotreme.html

Mammals are basically defined as animals that feed their young milk (is. have mammory glands). Monotremes are very different from other mammals, but close enough that they are still mammals and not a different class. There are only three species of monotreme and yes, they are all fairly similar (eggs, poison, no teeth,...).
Click to expand...

The other ones have poison? I thought that the platypus was the only venomous mamal.
 
ponderingturtle said:
The other ones have poison? I thought that the platypus was the only venomous mamal.
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Oops, must have slipped in while I wasn't looking. No, the others don't have poison.

On a different note, something very wrong with platypussies that Andy didn't mention :

"The name monotreme means "one-holed," referring to the cloaca, a single hole that serves the urinary tract, anus, and reproductive tract in monotremes."
 
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