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See the original image at livescience.com

World's Strangest Creature? Part Mammal, Part Reptile

livescience.com — The platypus sports fur like a mammal, paddles its duck feet like a bird and lays eggs in the manner of a reptile.

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  • zplot, on 05/09/2008, -3/+18The platypus is awesome. It doesn't conform to giving birth like other mammals, but does its own thing and lays egg. Rock on.
    • rockphotog, on 05/09/2008, -3/+2It's a punk!
    • RubineBoy, on 05/09/2008, -1/+2Speaking of an identity crisis ...
    • ozroy, on 05/09/2008, -3/+3God probably created the platypus right after he created the marijuana plant
    • ogore, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1Where is the echidna love?
      • Intoxau, on 05/10/2008, -0/+0Be careful with echidna love. Those spines can really hurt.
  • willk281, on 05/09/2008, -9/+3Word, platypuses are badasses. Congrats on receiving my 1000th digg.
  • mentallyinhell, on 05/09/2008, -6/+3Looks like spare parts to me.
  • suzywang3000, on 05/09/2008, -11/+3those look very delicious.
  • angusm, on 05/09/2008, -12/+24I've always thought of the platypus as God's Easter Egg, a quirky joke hidden in the animal kingdom by a bored programmer who'd worked too many late nights.
    • kakwakas, on 05/09/2008, -5/+1More like by a drunken deity who was getting bored.
    • 4rp4n3t, on 05/09/2008, -7/+15Funny. I always thought of god [sic] as Man's Easter egg. A quirky joke hidden in the minds of the gullible and needy. Ho hum.
      • masterm1nd, on 05/09/2008, -10/+1god, learn when and when not to capitalize words Man.
        • 4rp4n3t, on 05/09/2008, -4/+7Swhooooosh
        • masterm1nd, on 05/09/2008, -4/+1Learn the difference between Nike and whoosh. Probably wouldn't hurt to look up the definition of 'hidden' either. Oh, and you're 35 for ***** sake, find something better to do than insult others beliefs.
          • 4rp4n3t, on 05/09/2008, -3/+1Um, let me think...no, don't need to thanks, how do you *know* that, and there IS nothing better to do than insult the irrational superstitions of others.
          • masterm1nd, on 05/09/2008, -2/+1They don't *know*, but it's not hidden if it *isn't hidden*. Is it not irrational to call all 6 billion living believers (99% of humans that ever lived) gullible and needy? You might want to look up superstition while we're at it.
          • Wade, on 05/09/2008, -1/+3Insinuating the existence of a god is as much an insult to someone's disbelief in the supernatural as refuting the existence of a god. Fire meet fire.
          • 4rp4n3t, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1Come on, you're not even trying now.
          • Sverre, on 05/09/2008, -1/+2@masterm1nd: According to this random source: http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.ht ... , there are about 1.1 billion non-believers, making up 16% of the worlds population.
          • masterm1nd, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1I was off by .1%. That totally means it is in fact rational to call all 5.9 billion living believers (99% of humans that ever lived) gullible and needy
      • Opiate, on 05/09/2008, -3/+4How's life treating you? Why are athiests so uptight and intolerant to jokes about god even, you do realise that man could create such a creature and be it's "god".
        • 4rp4n3t, on 05/09/2008, -2/+2Very, very well, thanks!
          What makes you so sure I am atheist? What gives you the impression I was uptight about the OP's comment?
          BTW - is your username anything to do with Marx's "Contribution to Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right"?
    • ripple123, on 05/09/2008, -5/+6Its so annoying when religious people try and insert their philosophies into completely unrelated conversations. Its like a salesman who never clocks off.
      • ormmarine, on 05/09/2008, -2/+6It's equally annoying when non-religious people spaz over the slightest religious viewpoint on any subject, claiming religion has nothing to do with said subject.
        Put yourself in the shoes of someone who believes in a god or the God. This god encompasses more than early Sunday mornings (or whenever the community of worshipers gathers), and it's natural, when you encounter something beautiful/odd/interesting in the world to think of the creator who made it and wonder why it was made that way.
        • Opiate, on 05/09/2008, -1/+2You're getting dugg down but you happen to be more reasonable then the lot, how's that for irony?
          • ormmarine, on 05/09/2008, -0/+0On Digg, this isn't irony, it's to be expected ;-)
    • Abram730, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2Nothing like some rushed horizontal gene transfer to save a host.

      Saved by noodlely goodness.
  • dave122, on 05/09/2008, -4/+9I for one welcome our new snake-chicken-gorilla overlords.
  • db0255, on 05/09/2008, -6/+5And by part mammal/part reptile platypus they mean Hillary Clinton.
    • DarthDiabetes, on 05/09/2008, -2/+7"Since the platypus lacks nipples, the pups suckle milk from the mother's abdominal skin."
      Picturing anything suckling Hillary has me on the verge of a coma.
      • radix2, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1Nipples are just modified sweat glands anyway. But why did politics have to enter this thread? Oh. I'm on Digg....
  • arcooke, on 05/09/2008, -6/+1*****
  • Steven8890, on 05/09/2008, -11/+6Will it blend?
    • ispeakasian, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1No. the platypus is the only thing that WON'T blend.
  • rabidbob, on 05/09/2008, -2/+4The platypus is an odd combination of very cool and bizarrely stupid. What I really want to know though is are they kosher? No one has been able to give me a firm answer to this yet.
    • ripple123, on 05/09/2008, -5/+2Thats because no one cares.
      • mxmj, on 05/09/2008, -1/+2I care.
      • Fordi, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Well, they don't have cloven hooves, and technically, all small mammals are kosher. Reptiles aren't even spoken to in Kashrut, so I have to assume that they're kosher as well. All in all, I think you can eat a duck billed platypus without disobeying any mitzvot.

        By the by: I'm an ex-catholic atheist.
  • forevernomad, on 05/09/2008, -2/+0"Though it'll go without saying ten minutes or so into these preceedings, View Askew would like to state that this film is from start to finish a work of comedic fantasy, not to be taken seriously. To insist that any of what follows is incendiary or inflammatory is to miss our intention and pass judgement; and passing judgement is reserved for God and God alone (this goes for you film critics too...just kidding). So please before you think about hurting someone over this trifle of a
    film, remember: even God has a sense of humor. Just look at the Platypus. Thank you and enjoy the show.

    P.S. We sincerely apologize to all Platypus enthusiasts out there who are
    offended by that thoughtless comment about Platypi. We at View Askew
    respect the noble Platypus, and it is not our intention to slight these
    stupid creatures in any way.

    Thank you again and enjoy the show"
  • DarthDiabetes, on 05/09/2008, -5/+0Who's congressman are we talking about?
  • Lokomis, on 05/09/2008, -1/+4i think platypus is a pretty cool guy. eh lays eggs and doesn't afraid of anything.
  • Fockzhound, on 05/09/2008, -3/+1I read somewhere that platypi eat chazzwozzas mainly
  • treeflappa, on 05/09/2008, -2/+2I bet they still taste like chicken.
  • mrdiggdude, on 05/09/2008, -1/+2I swear ive already seen 2 articles about platypus's on the front page today
  • da_bradler, on 05/09/2008, -2/+9Two platypus articles on the front page within 12 hours of each-other? What the hell is going on... Since Obama finished off Hillary have all the Obama bots turned into Platypus bots? http://digg.com/general_sciences/Platypus_genetic_ ...
    • ogore, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Nah there just using them so they can make Hillary/reptile jokes
  • linga99, on 05/09/2008, -1/+6I am fortunate in that there are a couple of places near where I live where I regularly see these things while I'm fishing (yes, I am an aussie). If you are quiet you can watch them for ages. You end up forgetting fishing for a while and just watching them. They really aren't that big, the article says 50cm but I have never seen one that big. One thing the article doesn't tell you is that the males have a poisonous 'spike' too, like a fish or something.
    • ParanoydAndroid, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2"And unlike other mammals, the male platypus can deliver venom from a tiny spur on each hind limb. "
      Ignoring the fact that they began a sentence with "and," they did actually describe that very phenomenon.
  • datagod, on 05/09/2008, -3/+2At first I thought this was another Hilary bashing article....the title suits her...
  • donkeySays, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1Thought it was part mammal, part bird.
    • aladrin, on 05/09/2008, -1/+4Half mammal, half reptile, half bird.. MammalBirdReptile. It exists! I'm super serial!
  • aladrin, on 05/09/2008, -1/+2Ah good, they didn't forget about the venom from the hind claws. Somehow, that is even weirder than the rest of it.
  • j2002, on 05/09/2008, -1/+2The Platypus is a monotreme - a proto mammel, not as the article states, a mammel - but its not the only one - echidnas are also monotremes like knuckles from sonic!
    • ogore, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2from wikipedia
      'Male echidnas have a four-headed penis, but only two of the heads are used during mating. The other two heads "shut down" and do not grow in size. The heads used are swapped each time the mammal has sex.'
  • Zoshchenko, on 05/09/2008, -3/+2Platypusses (platypi?) got venom? Wow...who knew?
  • Jamesara13, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1They are going to grow wings, i am telling you!!!
  • Zippo, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1The platypus is such a badass. Even with all of its strange oddities, it doesn't afraid of anything. It will mess you up.
    • BladeMelbourne, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Yeah. If they didn't ***** bricks I would be homeless.
  • bovilexia, on 05/09/2008, -1/+2I thought it was ManBearPig
  • bongowaxx, on 05/09/2008, -6/+1All of these comments suck. Just like the platypus. I buried all of you.
    • mxmj, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1Way to put things back on track...
      • bongowaxx, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1Thank you thank you, I'm here all day.
  • fuuinverse, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1The only thing that bothers me is when people insist on saying that platypuses have something-like-a-something-else. They don't, they look look superficially similar to other animal parts, that's it.
    Here's something about it: http://thinkingzygote.blogspot.com/2008/05/platypu ...
  • waynehoggett, on 05/09/2008, -1/+3Platypi aren't new... Australia has the best animals in the world. Sure we don't have tigers, elephants or gorillas, but we have kangaroos, koalas and these little beauties!
    • Waterrat, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1 I agree. I'd much rather see a program about aussie critters than yet another one about lions killing whatever.
  • thedogfatherx, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1Platypus's are a hell of a drug.
  • steveoco, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1Not to mention they are poisonous...
    • huertanix, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1lolwut?
      • steveoco, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1They have a barb behind there back flippers which can inject a venom. I have no idea why people are digging down the comments about the poisonous barb... it is totally fact.
  • mrzack, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1Just like us Human beings...genetically modified by Aliens.
  • Sverre, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3One thing that bothers me with the article is the use of the word reptile.

    Okay, I know I'm being pedantic, but technically speaking, the common ancestor of platypi and the other mammals was not a reptile. They are called synapsids, and used to be called "mammal-like reptiles", which may be where the confusion comes from. This name is not used anymore, so as to not confuse them with the real reptiles (sauropsids).

    The point is that these features are not uniquely reptilian - they were present in a common ancestor of reptiles and the synapsids. The fact that the rest of the mammals lost these features does not make the features reptilian. (The illustration linked from the article is ridiculus; eggs are certainly not a unique bird feature, as most creatures lay eggs.)
  • BabyWookie, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1I, for one, welcome our new half-reptilian overlords.
  • steveoco, on 05/10/2008, -0/+2The male Platypus has ankle spurs which produce a ***** of venom, composed largely of defensin-like proteins (DLPs), which is unique to the Platypus. Although powerful enough to kill smaller animals, the venom is not lethal to humans, but is so excruciating that the victim may be incapacitated. Oedema rapidly develops around the wound and gradually spreads throughout the affected limb. Information obtained from case histories and anecdotal evidence indicates that the pain develops into a long-lasting hyperalgesia that persists for days or even months
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