1999/03/01 by Brian K. Hall · 2 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Evolution and Paleontology Studies #Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life
paper · pdf · doi:10.2307/1313511
openalex publication_date 1999/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
The story of the discovery of the platypus (Figure 1) teaches us much that is relevant to the nature of scientific evidence, orthodoxy, entrenched authority, the role of personalities in science, the slow overthrow of old mores, national rivalries, prejudices and priorities, the strictures of animal classification, what it takes to be described as a mammal, conservation, and extinction. A rivalry that pitted nation against nation, naturalist against naturalist, and professional against amateur endured for 85 years before the true nature of the platypus was revealed. Long after the evidence was wrested from Nature half a world away from where the debate raged, professional biologists continued to argue about this paradoxical creature. How did such a situation arise? The platypus, Ornithorhynchus anatinus, whose combination of avian, reptilian, and mammalian features so puzzled nineteenth century naturalists and continues to fascinate people to this day. Modified from Augie (1992). Platypuses—duckbills, watermoles, or duckmoles, as the European settlers of New South Wales called them—are found only in Australian freshwater lakes and streams. David Collins, who arrived with the First Fleet as Deputy Judge-Advocate, provided an early description in the second edition of An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales: The Kangaroo, the Dog, the Opossum, the Flying Squirrel, the common Rat, and the large Fox-Bat (if entitled to a place in this society), made up the whole catalogue of animals that were known at this time, with the exception which must now be made of an amphibious animal, of the mole species, one of which has been lately found on the banks of a lake near the Hawkesbury. In size it was considerably larger than the land mole. The eyes were very small. The forelegs, which were shorter than the hind, were observed at the feet, to be provided with four claws, and a membrane, or web, that spread considerably beyond them, while the feet of the hind legs were furnished, not only with this membrane or web, but with four long and sharp claws, that projected as much beyond the web, as the web projected beyond the claws of the fore feet. The tail of this animal was thick, short, and very fat; but the most extraordinary circumstance observed in its structure was, its having instead of the mouth of an animal [mammal], the upper and lower mandibles of a duck. By these it was enabled to supply itself with food, like that bird, in muddy places, or on the banks of the lakes, in which its webbed feet enabled it to swim, while on shore its long and sharp claws were employed in burrowing; nature thus providing for it in its double or amphibious character. These little animals have been frequently noticed rising to the surface of the water, and blowing like the turtle. (Collins 1802, p. 62) Captain John Hunter, the second governor of the new colony, watched an Aborigine spear a platypus in Yarramundi Lagoon near the Hawkesbury River just north of Sydney in 1797. The Aborigine sat patiently at water's edge for more than an hour, observing the animal as it came to the surface to breathe, before he attempted to spear it with his short wooden spear. Hunter's fine drawing of this animal accompanied Collins's description of this “amphibious animal, of the mole species” (Figure 2). A keen naturalist and fellow of the Royal Society, Hunter supplied many animals and plants to naturalists in England. Many saw his sketch and read Collins' description before specimens became available. The incomparable English wood engraver, Thomas Bewick, published another early representation in 1800 in his justly renowned A General History of Quadrupeds (Bewick 1800; Figure 3). Governor John Hunter's drawing of the amphibious animal of the mole kind, which was drawn in 1797 and included as an engraving in the second edition of David Collins' An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales (Collins 1802). Thomas Bewick's engraving of the amphibious animal, the last plate in the fourth edition of A General History of Quadrupeds (Bewick 1805). The platypus was given its scientific name, Platypus anatinus (flat-foot duck), in 1799 by George Shaw, a parson turned Keeper of the Department of Natural History of the Modern Curiosities of the British Museum. His description of the platypus was based on a single skin and accompanying sketch sent by Hunter to the Literary and Philosophical Society in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1798. The skin of this original (type) specimen is still preserved in the British Museum. Shaw's description (Shaw 1799) was published in the tenth volume of an important natural history journal of the time, Naturalist's Miscellany—or, to give it its full, descriptive title: The Naturalist's Miscellany: or Coloured Figures of Natural Objects Drawn and Described Immediately from Nature— produced by Shaw and the illustrator Frederick P. Nodder as an outlet for all manner of discoveries from the natural world. Over 1000 different animals were illustrated in its pages between 1798 and 1882, including the kangaroo, black swan, and echidna from the Great South Land, now known as Australia. Shaw's description was remarkably accurate, based as it was on a dried skin with a desiccated and hardened “bill” so unlike the soft, flexible bill of the living animal. Although he thought it was a mammal, its exotic, even bizarre appearance mystified Shaw: Of all the Mammalia yet known it seems the most extra-ordinary in its conformation; exhibiting the perfect resemblance of the beak of a Duck engrafted on the head of a quadruped. So accurate is the similitude, that, at first view, it naturally excites the idea of some deceptive preparation by artificial means; the very epidermis, proportions, serratures, manner of opening, and other particulars is the beak of a shoveler, or other broad-billed species of duck, presenting themselves to the view; nor is it without the most minute and rigid examination that we can persuade ourselves of its being the real beak or snout of a quadruped. (Shaw 1799, p. 384) Three years later, the Göttingen anatomist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, who is famous for his discoveries of mammoths and crinoids (an extinct class of echinoderms), described the platypus from a second skin sent by Hunter. Blumenbach named the animal Ornithorhynchus paradoxus (paradoxical bird-snout; Blumenbach 1803). The world now had two names for this exotic creature. Unknown to Shaw, however, the generic name Platypus had been used for a genus of beetles in 1793. Such are the strictures of the international rules of zoological nomenclature that Platypus had to be abandoned. However, Shaw's specific epithet stood. The platypus thus became Ornithorhynchus anatinus. It seems entirely appropriate that this animal, which so resembles a hybrid, should bear a hybrid name. Ornithorhynchus greatly puzzled and agitated naturalists of the day. Was it a mammal, as Shaw thought? Did it represent a new group of animals? Could it be a “missing link” between two well-known groups, especially between reptiles and mammals? Did it represent a new class of vertebrates, as the French anatomist Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire maintained? Or was it a hoax, as many suspected and as Shaw himself wondered, even as he wrote the initial description? Did the females lay eggs, as birds and many reptiles do? Or did they give birth to live young, as mammals do? The creature, with its fur, duck bill, and webbed feet, would have appeared even more paradoxical had it been known that it laid eggs and suckled its young. No animal was known to do that. Furthermore, no animal was supposed to do that. In the taxonomy established for European species by European naturalists, it was axiomatic that all milk-producing animals give birth to live young, and so, by definition, are mammals. Warm-blooded egg-laying animals were birds. Cold-blooded egg-laying animals were reptiles. There was no place in this scheme for the platypus. A hoax—the bill of a duck attached to the skin of a mole—would have been in keeping with a number of other bizarre animals fabricated and displayed as genuine in Britain and America in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Robert Knox, the Edinburgh anatomist whose name we now associate with body snatching and grave robbing (and possibly even murder) to obtain human cadavers for dissection, provided a rationale for suspicions that the platypus was a hoax in his account of the animal's anatomy: It is well known that the specimens of this extraordinary animal first brought to Europe were considered by many as impositions. They reached England by vessels which had navigated the Indian seas, a circumstance in itself sufficient to rouse the suspicions of the scientific naturalist, aware of the monstrous impostures which the artful Chinese had so frequently practised on European adventurers; in short, the scientific felt inclined to class this rare production of nature with eastern mermaids and other works of art; but these conjectures were immediately dispelled by an appeal to anatomy. (Knox 1823, p. 27) If not a hoax, then Ornithorhynchus was truly paradoxical. New findings only added to the paradox. In 1802, the surgeon and anatomist Sir Everard Home reported that the males had internal testes—like reptiles and unlike mammals—and that both males and females had a cloaca, a common opening for the alimentary, excretory, and reproductive tracts (Home 1802). Possession of a cloaca is a reptilian characteristic, more particularly a characteristic of reptiles that retain their eggs within the body, where the young hatch. Such a mixture of structures quickly established the notion of the platypus as a missing link between reptiles and mammals. Other European anatomists then set to work in the “platypus industry.” The great German anatomist Johann F. Meckel published four influential accounts, the first (Meckel 1823) on the nature of the spur and poison gland in males. In the second (Meckel 1824) he mentioned the existence of mammary glands, but he did not describe them until his detailed papers of a few years later (Meckel 1826, 1827). The secretion of milk in a live animal was described for the first time 6 years later by Lieutenant the Honorable Lauderdale Maule of the 39th Regiment of the British Army, which was stationed in New South Wales. According to Maule's description (Maule 1832a, 1832b), the mammary glands were not typical; fur covered the nipples, and the glands themselves were quite small, except during lactation. However, the presence of mammary glands—no matter how unusual or atypical—satisfied many naturalists that these animals must be mammals. The absence of wings and feathers meant that they were not birds, and their warm bloodedness and the presence of a diaphragm meant that they were not reptiles. Anatomical features suggesting egg laying were, however, consistent with the platypus not being a mammal. Certain bones found in the pectoral girdles, otherwise known only from of reptiles the platypus at the between reptiles and that made it a missing was the platypus a Or a with a It paradoxical. now in the and However, in the years after their these animals were in an of and had especially for Shaw, the first to a live included them with and in a group that called now known as the (Shaw 1799, Home thought that they to a new of mammals (Home 1802). Geoffroy for a class for the platypus and which he named of the single opening for and but he was about their to other mammals. and in a new the the German anatomist the between reptiles and mammals. the French anatomist and in the of at the Natural History a of the to Although Meckel the mammary glands, he was not that they were true mammalian mammary that the platypus a class by A would have these early at It was not until late in the nineteenth century that specimens of what were described as species of platypus were The Ornithorhynchus was described from a and lower by the of the years later it was to be a specimen of the living platypus, anatinus. A second Ornithorhynchus by the is now known to be a now the platypus is not described by and and is only by upper a of the lower and an described by is an early The of both species are to the found in living Modern do not have the and are by on both the upper and lower The most of a new species, from the has but is otherwise an In the debate the and of the platypus, national and were at as much to the nation whose the scientific world. Britain was against against against Although they that the was a mammal, and that the eggs within the body as in even at up to in the eggs were much larger than mammalian the English Geoffroy and that the eggs were as in birds and but that a and other that were true mammals that produced live young. saw that the to the paradoxical platypus lay in its a time after the discovery of mammary glands and milk laid eggs was to the The that all milk-producing animals give birth to live young was so entrenched that of egg laying by were not There are of egg production and birth to one of which have is in the are a and the young are not in an animals and mammals are suckled at mammary with large of are takes place the body of the and the young from the eggs after they are animals birds and reptiles. are within the body, and are from in the egg and not a The young within the body of the animals some and and four species of Although and some of the early in New South Wales were that laid eggs, the European scientific are the of by the evidence of and were even to be by or by provided by The Sydney to of that laid eggs with the that evidence must be and reported on by in the world has then all the scientific world and where they have not in scientific they came from the surgeon Sir John wrote in the of the Society of on is and in in the years later, P. to or with a which live in the of the and which lay In a to a John of that he had found two eggs in a in which he had a platypus These eggs were the size of a and were soft, and being without or to a the eggs before their be they the first platypus eggs to be Or were they the eggs of a in the by a to the other published of eggs that were to be from the platypus. Geoffroy published a description of a egg in only to that the egg was much large to have the The Australian of this egg with the of that is at to an Australian that the egg is that of the common It was not unusual for the settlers or even the to eggs of other species to them as platypus two eggs by one a the other a much to his George the first and of the Australian who had the of and the of their egg production in New South Wales and who was an important in the of in supplied the specimens on which based his papers on the of and of these papers and in to the Royal Society in thought that the to the of lay eggs live young would be to and a platypus during what was thought to be the and this he to By however, was that such of (and and in the name of would to their extinction. In the to his of animal and of a in pages of which are to the Figure A of the platypus by for the Society, plate in by George used on the of the Many of the Australian and birds are not only to that but even of rare and such has been the of that they are in a of in time, have been and the of be from their the Ornithorhynchus and the the and the like the and only in the pages of the The that what he has been to with to this important not be without to p. by the of the century the platypus was to extinction. by however, are what all considered the last of evidence for platypus with a that the were in their that laid eggs, he himself from examination of that they did not eggs that be to the “platypus only to be at the by an young The the of lay from in and years later was in to was a of who had while in the only after being of In his established the which became the zoological of the the first used the a the and of the Royal Society, and of from to to in to the of lay His was to and The of specimens were, of had for without In set up on the banks of the River in and the to work for and platypus of and many in the water, for the eggs of the of the to and very had from the In the second of had in but it was not until the that the laid eggs from the of In the an Ornithorhynchus whose first egg had been second egg was in a of appearance larger that of was at a to a p. A has of of the and and the first of as the head to The presence of an of such an in the of a platypus that before the eggs were the sent in the to a where it would the to of the of of the Sydney to it to the British at p. which has few for in to the of the British for the of in It the by the of platypus egg production was The four in the a of do lay eggs large of the is not A egg is what birds the egg just like a By one of of so common in scientific on one after the platypus with the of the South Australian found an in the of an the very that was read in the echidna egg to the Royal Society of South in If is on the of of then and the for the discovery of in If is on the of of the then has published his findings in not until Ornithorhynchus eggs now second place to the A little after his was read in a from to was to the Royal Society of New South Wales. has with The Platypus eggs were and should have been in New England by but is much more Platypus are quite to how they have not been The the are is the of the for They that it is the of the eggs having a of that to years in to the of and His were of a naturalist, to the of for the of the and only by as he described them in a to on the other from of the of animals he and an of to work to his In of he females from a single in an to eggs or In and employed to was not that in the of a few had the of platypus egg laying and (and the An echidna found by and it an egg from its sent another this time to in to that he had all There was no of this of platypus egg continued for some In his on the in the edition of the the renowned evidence, that not to be evidence that the eggs in this genus are In their on the platypus, however, and they wrote that established the that Platypus as well as is of the platypus is that live for like years and for their is one of a who is at years after is no that has an egg being did it is that he found a with an egg that he had The platypus from to on one to eggs eggs, in of are laid in a at the of a two quite different the banks of or a short used by both and a used by the to young. as long as and with first described by Maule in The Platypus in the banks of a where the is and and the and covered with or by the of the surface is the to a which the away from the a to and rising its a of some few from the edge this two a to the and in the which is a with and and more than from the water, or than two feet the surface of the of their were, with and (Maule 1832a, and the platypus as a link between and were what had in he like the platypus it is like the it its is quite but it is important to that the is well the egg is The tail the eggs to an with a of even the is much are their in this important in the for while fur the young a of some the in late Of of the platypus, has the double of the first work on the platypus based on a of and the first to animals in was no 6 a to the of and eggs by a animal in a single day. is more than half the animal's so much time the to so much time water, it is that in his David in as and the the Sir in he a famous at in In and what was until very the only platypus birth in the Australian Natural History in he was described as single most and influential naturalist in had a long with In late while was at one of four naturalists, the for near by the the River in which the Platypus the as it is called or the the for one It was all to no was not to a living Platypus or even a in Australia. saw only the of the Platypus of a duck), which the to in a made by the animals from one to The that he was the Platypus did not lay eggs, and that he had the young and his description of them with what from on the years and after he was not to a living by then of and at in as of of the British for the of to read It was reported that that it the of from a reptilian of with such a to human the of the platypus would to be felt in yet another of that is another much that is relevant to the nature of scientific evidence, orthodoxy, entrenched authority, the role of personalities in for in the preparation of this from the Natural and of and the of is