Carnivorous Nights_ On the Trail of the Tasmanian Tiger - Margaret Mittelbach [110]
We squinted, trying to identify the creature. In the waning light, we saw that the stream of bubbles was coming out of a ducklike bill attached to some sort of furry animal. The only thing that could have surprised us more was a shark fin breaking the surface.
“One platypussums,” said Alexis in a singsong voice.
The bubble trail moved toward us. Then with a splash, the platypus dived underwater. Reeds rustled along the bank by our feet, and the platypus disappeared.
“I think it just went into its burrow,” Alexis said. We envisioned the platypus curled up in a muddy tube in the riverbank somewhere below where we were standing.
It seemed impossible that a platypus would be so acclimated to human activities. What was one of the strangest animals in the world doing swimming alongside a Tasmanian village with a pub not two hundred steps away and keeping company with a bunch of pigeons?
We waited a few minutes, but the platypus didn't emerge from its riverbank home. As we followed the Meander upriver, however, we soon observed the telltale bubbles of another platypus. It was repeatedly diving and re-emerging, so we were able to see tantalizing bits of its unusual body. A beaverlike tail … splash splash … a webbed foot topped with long claws … plop, splash … a bill … bubble bubble … a smooth head with no apparent ears … splash.
“They're unconvincing as an animal even in real life,” said Alexis.
It was true. The platypus was an animal that continued to stupefy people with its bizarre combination of parts. We had to sympathize with someone like David Collins, who was the first European to publish an account of a live platypus. In his description, he played down the duckbill, either because he did not know what to make of it or perhaps fearing he wouldn't be believed. First, he labeled the platypus as an “amphibious animal, of the mole species.” Then he described the platypus's feet in great detail (webbing between the toes, claws) and only at the end did he mention the curious fact that the “mole” had a duckbill—perhaps hoping that readers would accept this idea once they knew a few believable details about the creature.
According to Touch the Morning, Tasmanian aboriginal legend said the platypus was originally two animals, a burrowing mammal and a duck. Together, these two creatures double-teamed young frogs, chasing them into a riverbank burrow and eating them. As punishment, they were torn apart and mashed together again into one half-and-half beast minus the duck's feathers and the mammal's hind legs.
When the first platypus specimens from Australia were sent back to England in 1798, people thought they were two unrelated animals sewn together. A faked-up mermaid (which was commonly fabricated from monkey remains and fishtails) was more understandable. At least mermaids were well-known mythical creatures. But who would believe an otter-and-duck combination?
In the end, scientists discovered that the platypus was not only real, but even weirder than was immediately apparent. For one thing, the platypus seemed to be some sort of reptile-mammal hybrid that broke the bounds of the existing classification systems. The platypus had fur like a mammal, but laid eggs like a bird or reptile. It had mammary glands (the hallmark of being a mammal) and nursed its young with milk—but it didn't have nipples. Instead, the platypus produced milk from slits in its abdomen. And like reptiles and birds, it had a cloaca—one hole from which to pee, defecate, have sex, and lay eggs. (Male platypuses did, however, have a separate penis.)
While watching the platypus repeatedly dive and blow bubbles in the Meander, we discussed how this amazing egg-laying mammal was ultimately placed by scientists within the unromantically named classification of monotreme.
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