The Puzzle of the Platypus
THE MORE WE DISCOVER about the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) the weirder it seems. The latest feature setting this Australian species apart, yet again, from any other living animal is a unique protein in its milk that’s been found to kill bacteria and other microbes. Scientists at Deakin University, Victoria, believe it could be an answer to deadly antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which are infecting increasing numbers of people worldwide. But that’s not all.
The platypus is one of only a few mammal species that produce venom (see page 65) and last year University of Adelaide-led research began exploring a hormone in this complex chemical cocktail as a potential new diabetes treatment.
Who’d have thought answers to two of the biggest human health scourges of the 21st century could be paddling about in eastern Australia’s rivers? Ironically, however, just as the platypus seems likely to become a modern miracle for medicine, signs are that its populations have been crashing Australia-wide. Ecologists are now asking if the species is already on the path to extinction.
THE PLATYPUS HAS had western scientists scratching their heads since 1798 when a pelt was sent from the young colony of New South Wales to the natural history section of the British Museum. With a leathery bill shaped like a bird’s, a tail like a beaver’s, webbed front feet and the trademark fur of a mammal, it was thought to have been a hoax stitched together by a fraudster.
Long after science was finally convinced the creature was real, and most likely a mammal, fresh debate and bewilderment arose when it was discovered that platypuses lay eggs, like most reptiles, with leathery shells. Even more peculiar was what hatches from these – tiny underdeveloped foetus-like babies. This unlikely mode of reproduction is a trait the platypus shares only with the echidnas; together they’re scientifically classified as monotremes.
Monotremes are one of three main groups of living mammals. The others are: placentals,
