Description

Platypus

When the first specimen of a platypus arrived in England in 1799 it was greeted with astonishment and disbelief.  What was this strange creature from the new colony of Australia?  It defied rational explanation, with its webbed feet and duck’s beak attached to what seemed to be a mammal’s body – surely it was a hoax on the part of those cheeky new colonials?

Originally published in 2001, this new edition has been updated to include important new breakthroughs in genetic research arising from the sequencing of the platypus genome.