Platypus genome.

[den]

Discovery on the platypus genome.

I still think echidnas are cooler.

Comments

[psaakyrn.livejournal.com]

Not that I disbelieve in evolution, but I'm still wondering exactly how platypi evolved to their current form...

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

They do! Not as well as platypuses, but they do have the nose electro-receptors to go with the sense of smell.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[sleepyjohn00.livejournal.com]

Gaia has her good days and her bad days. - John Varley, Titan

not news

[sleepyjohn00.livejournal.com]

They knew about the platypus' sense of electrodirection a couple of decades ago, when I was in college.

God stepped on the beak of the poor platypus,
And that's how he came to have so flat a puss.
Oh, who can imagine what it's like to be stuck
With a rear like a beaver and a front like a duck?

[amazingadrian.livejournal.com]

That's weird! I thought only sea creatures could do that. Though the platypus is an aquatic mammal...

It's a trait that seems to work best in the water.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

The platypus hunts exclusively in water. It took scientists years to discover the electro-receptors, and they could never work out how it found its prey because the animals close their eyes, ears and nostrils when underwater.