Duck-billed platypus

[Bonecrusher]

Talk about a missing link.

But between "who" and "what".

There's something very strange about this creature and I can't put my finger on it.

Edited January 8, 2013 by Medium Brown

[Keel M.]

Looks like a rodent who ate a duck and decided to keep its bill to wear fashionably.

[Mr.United_Nations]

it lays eggs

[Bonecrusher]

it lays eggs

I will give you that about it laying hard-shelled eggs like a bird or reptile.

However it's the only mammal that injects venom.

It's the only mammal that has a beak like a bird.

It's eyes have been compared to a fish.

And yet the only thing that discerns it as a mammal is it's fur.

It's got the basic elements of a crypto and that's what I can't put my finger on.

Maybe this simple video might help...

http://media.photobucket.com/video/duck%20billed%20platypus/RosyBoas/Video%20-%20Platypus/ProbingPlatypusEvolution-MSNVideo.mp4?o=1

Edited January 8, 2013 by Medium Brown

[Taun]

The horseshoe crab is another 'living fossil' with weird attributes... 5 pairs of legs, 9 eyes - two on the underside, copper based blood rather than iron based like most of the planet, etc...

[Abramelin]

And it's venomous too.

But its bill only looks like a duck's bill from the outside:

[Bonecrusher]

And it's venomous too.

But its bill only looks like a duck's bill from the outside:

It does feel like the bill is glued on somehow.

[Hasina]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080507131453.htm

[Mr.United_Nations]

I think it rushed in evolution, but why?

[oddiumxwanderus]

The horseshoe crab is another 'living fossil' with weird attributes... 5 pairs of legs, 9 eyes - two on the underside, copper based blood rather than iron based like most of the planet, etc...

interesting stuff, been reading up on Horseshoe crabs for the last 30 minutes or so now, thanks!

[Bonecrusher]

I've been checking out that video that nobody's had a chance to access.

The creature actually waddles like a duck.

[Abramelin]

It does feel like the bill is glued on somehow.

And what the hell is that set of bones behind its skull??

Shoulder blades in the wrong place or something?

[Bonecrusher]

And what the hell is that set of bones behind its skull??

Shoulder blades in the wrong place or something?

I wasn't being serious like Lady K.

It's the kind of thing somebody would say when they are joking.

I'm well aware it's bone structure gives it away as a mammal.

But that's not the entire point of this thread.

I'm more interested in how the creature became a walking I'm mean waddling contradiction.

All I can say for sure is that these weird mutations do happen in or near an aquatic environment.

You've also got the hermit crabs to consider and deep sea fishes.

Edited January 10, 2013 by Medium Brown

[Hasina]

I wasn't being serious like Lady K.

It's the kind of thing somebody would say when they are joking.

I'm well aware it's bone structure gives it away as a mammal.

But that's not the entire point of this thread.

I'm more interested in how the creature became a walking I'm mean waddling contradiction.

All I can say for sure is that these weird mutations do happen in or near an aquatic environment.

You've also got the hermit crabs to consider and deep sea fishes.

They're adaptions to semi-aquatic living or in an area of the sea where swimming and being able to patrol the sea floor is paramount.

[Bonecrusher]

They're adaptions to semi-aquatic living or in an area of the sea where swimming and being able to patrol the sea floor is paramount.

That's a fair statement.

[s33ker]

There up here were I live in a beautiful river system with waterfalls and swimming holes. They look freakish in photos ,but in reallity they are small ,soft and so very cute. Seem a mother with a young one, it was the cutest darn thing I've ever seen and very natural to its surroundings. Poisoning by one of these is horendous, swelling until ya split open and pain for months that nothing dulls it ,not even morphine. They have no nipples so milk leaks from their skin for babies.