Platypus - Softcover

Moyal, Ann

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1865088048 ISBN 13: 9781865088044

Publisher: Allen & Unwin, 2002

Synopsis

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? As 18th-century naturalists struggled to classify the platypus, the little animal excited curiosity and sparked fierce debate in international scientific circles, drawing in leaders of zoology and comparative anatomy in Britain and Europe. This is the enigmatic story of a biological riddle that confounded scientists for nearly 90 years, challenging theories of creationism, evolution and the classification of species along the way. Secretive, elusive and beguiling, the platypus has continued to captivate public and scientific attention to the present day.

About this title

Review:

Consider the Platypus, that curious Australian creature that seems neither fish nor reptile nor mammal, but that has characteristics seemingly borrowed from all over the animal kingdom. Charles Darwin certainly did, puzzling over the platypus in the light of the rest of the world's creatures, and remarking, "Surely two distinct Creators must have been at work."

Australian historian of science Ann Moyal offers plenty of natural-historical information on the platypus in this slender, enjoyable book. What's more, she examines the sometimes shocked reactions the platypus inspired in European naturalists when they first saw specimens of the creature at the dawn of the 19th century. For, Moyal writes, the platypus almost single-handedly (or, perhaps better, single-web-footedly) overturned the prevailing classification of animals according to great-chain-of-being models; with its hodgepodge of physical traits and behaviours, it offered "an unexpected bridge between the categories of mammal/quadruped and reptiles and birds". That bridge helped set evolutionary theory on a new course; as Moyal writes, the platypus played an explicit role in Charles Darwin's ideas on isolation, species diversity, and natural selection, and he branded it a prime example of a "living fossil" that had managed to find an unoccupied ecological niche and live relatively undisturbed, while fellow creatures marched toward extinction.

Scientists continue to study the platypus, Moyal writes in closing, for its remarkable traits, including a seeming sixth sense that helps it locate its prey in the underwater darkness. Her graceful book, shedding new light on the history of biology, ought to earn Ornithorhynchus anatinus many new admirers. --Gregory McNamee

Review:

'a spectacularly wonderful book' Robyn Williams, 2001. 'In this remote part of the earth, Nature (having made horses, oxen, ducks, geese, oaks, elms, and all regular productions for the rest of the world) seems determined to have a bit of a play, and to amuse herself as she pleases.' Rev Sydney Smith, Sydney, 1819. 'A disbeliever in everything beyond his own reason, might exclaim, "Surely two distinct creators must have been at work".' Charles Darwin, 1836.

About this edition

• Publisher: Allen & Unwin
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1865088048
• ISBN 13: 9781865088044
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240