What the hell is a platypus?

[andyandy]

I mean, seriously, what is this creature?

The platypus's body temperature averages 32 °C (90 °F) rather than the 38 °C (100 °F) typical of placental mammals.

The platypus has extra bones in the shoulder girdle, including an interclavicle, which is not found in other mammals. It also has a reptile-like gait, with legs that are on the sides of the body, rather than underneath.

The male platypus has venomous ankle spurs,

The platypus is one of the few mammals known to have a sense of electroception: it locates its prey in part by detecting their body electricity. Its electroception is the most sensitive of any mammal.

it has an incredibly high concentration of vanabins and other vanadium-based compounds. The mechanisms that cause the absorption are not known, though other aquatic animals, including tunicates, also show this behavior. It also has an extremely high concentration of mercury in its blood compared to other mammals.

The platypus lays small, leathery eggs similar to those of reptiles, which are slightly rounder than bird eggs

the platypus has ten sex chromosomes, compared to two (XY) found in most other mammals (for instance, a male platypus is always XYXYXYXYXY). Furthermore, one of the platypus’s Y chromosomes shares genes with the ZZ/ZW sex chromosomes found in birds.

I don't reckon they really exist.....*


*probably a Australian Toursist board hoax....

 

[LibraryLady]

You are not the only person to think so: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/platypus.html

 

[brodski]

Even Dr Adaquate is unsure about humble Platypus. Soemthing strange is afoot, I think they're up to somthing.

and platypods ploddingly, placidly doing
whatever it is that they do.

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=1864972#post1864972

 

[andyandy]

In 1799 the naturalist George Shaw, Keeper of the Department of Natural History at the British Museum, received a truly bizarre animal specimen from Captain John Hunter in Australia. It appeared to be the bill of a duck attached to the skin of a mole. Shaw dutifully examined the specimen and wrote up a description of it in a scientific journal known as the Naturalist's Miscellany, but he couldn't help confessing that it was "impossible not to entertain some doubts as to the genuine nature of the animal, and to surmise that there might have been practised some arts of deception in its structure."


Other naturalists were equally suspicious that the creature was just a hoax. The surgeon Robert Knox later explained that because the specimens arrived in England via the Indian Ocean, naturalists suspected that Chinese sailors, who were well known for their skill at stitching together hybrid creatures, might have been playing some kind of joke upon them."Aware of the monstrous impostures which the artful Chinese had so frequently practised on European adventurers," Knox noted, "the scientific felt inclined to class this rare production of nature with eastern mermaids and other works of art."

lol

 

[a_unique_person]

It's a monotreme, (whatever that means). It only has the one opening in the rear section, like reptiles. How they got from Mt Ararat back here is a mystery.

 

[andyandy]

It's a monotreme, (whatever that means). It only has the one opening in the rear section, like reptiles. How they got from Mt Ararat back here is a mystery.

how many openings in the rear section do we have?

 

[sphenisc]

The platypus is final clinching evidence that the Intelligent Designer has a spare parts box.

 

[brodski]

how many openings in the rear section do we have?

2 or 3, depending on your sex, think quadrupedal

 

[Soapy Sam]

For "rear", read "lower".

A platypus is a kind of duck. You can tell, because when it quacks under a bridge , you can't hear the echo.

What further proof could we need?

 

[Cuddles]

For "rear", read "lower".

A platypus is a kind of duck. You can tell, because when it quacks under a bridge , you can't hear the echo.

What further proof could we need?

Evidence that it weighs the same as a witch.

 

[sphenisc]

For "rear", read "lower".

A platypus is a kind of duck. You can tell, because when it quacks under a bridge , you can't hear the echo.

What further proof could we need?

Is one of its legs both the same?

 

[Meffy]

If you've not yet read Dawkins' "The Ancestor's Tale" this would be a perfect time. The Platypus gets to tell its tale, with some attention to the features you mention.

 

[andyandy]

If you've not yet read Dawkins' "The Ancestor's Tale" this would be a perfect time. The Platypus gets to tell its tale, with some attention to the features you mention.

does he conclude that it's an aussie hoax?

 

[JamesDillon]

If you've not yet read Dawkins' "The Ancestor's Tale" this would be a perfect time. The Platypus gets to tell its tale, with some attention to the features you mention.

Even being a fan of Dawkins, I could only get about a third of the way through that one. I'll have to give it another try when I have about a month free for leisure reading.

 

[Angus McPresley]

Here's another favorite of mine -- the naked mole rat...

...has a eusocial organisation social structure, similar to that found in ants, termites, and some bees and wasps.

...is unique among mammals as it is virtually cold-blooded; it cannot regulate its body temperature at all

...lacks a key neurotransmitter called Substance P that is responsible in mammals for sending pain signals to the central nervous system. Therefore, when naked mole rats are cut, scraped or burned, they feel no pain.

...has a maximum longevity that is as yet unknown, since animals that have been in captivity for as long as 20 years are still currently living. This life span is unprecedented among small rodents.

...are virtually unique among mammals in that the queen typically has twice as many babies as she has teats. The youngsters share.

 

[andyandy]

Even being a fan of Dawkins, I could only get about a third of the way through that one. I'll have to give it another try when I have about a month free for leisure reading.

I've just read the selfish gene, and was thinking of buying another dawkins book....which would people recommed? Extended Phenotype i was thinking.....

 

[JayT]

The Platypus Was The Original Duck v1.0

I mean, seriously, what is this creature?

If a camel is a horse as designed by a committee, then a platypus was a product of the duck committee. It has undergone several revisions, but still needs to work out a few bugs.

Or maybe it's the missing evolutionary link between man and Sylvia Browne.

Does Australia have any 'normal' animals?

LOL

 

[Abdul Alhazred]

A platypus is the platypus God created to confound you impious intellectuals.

And a pair of them walked home from Mount Ararat.

 

[ponderingturtle]

The platypus is final clinching evidence that the Intelligent Designer has a spare parts box.

No, it is more evidence for Committee Design, that life was designed by committies of inteligent(?) beings.

 

[ponderingturtle]

If a camel is a horse as designed by a committee, then a platypus was a product of the duck committee. It has undergone several revisions, but still needs to work out a few bugs.

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.