The platypus
A freak, a fraud, and now a new finding
by Robert Doolan, John Mackay, Dr Andrew Snelling,
and Dr Allen Hall
 In
the freshwater streams of eastern Australia lives a most unusual creature. Fur like
velvet, a beaverlike tail, and a soft duckish bill, this odd-looking creature can
make a curious sight for those who see it for the first time.
When first seen in 1797 by early white settlers near the Hawkesbury River, outside
Sydney, it triggered a search and controversy that lasted almost a century. Nicknamed
the ‘watermole’, it was said to be a combination reptile, bird, fish
and furred animal. The perplexed local governor sent specimens back to mother England
for study.
But the English found it equally unbelievable. One zoologist suggested it was ‘freak
imposture’ sold to gullible seamen by Chinese taxidermists. Another, suspecting
fraud, tried to prise the ‘duck’s bill’ off the pelt; the marks
of his scissors can still be seen today on the original, now preserved in the British
Museum of Natural History in London.
But years of doubt were conquered by reality. In 1802 an English scientist confirmed
the creature was neither freak nor fraud but fact. Labelled ‘platypus’
because of its flat bill, and given the scientific name Ornithorhynchus, it had
finally splashed its way into natural history.
But what about that undiscussable of nineteenth century England—the sex life
of a platypus? Surely the rumours couldn’t be true that here was a furry animal
that actually laid eggs. Mammals give live birth to their young and feed them milk
from their breasts. But the mother platypus has no teats—it couldn’t
be mammal. Yet it was covered in fur. People were intrigued. Scientists pondered
over it. The great egg debate went on for 82 years. Finally, a Scottish zoologist
visiting Australia plucked up courage to look under the platypus’s kilt and
confirmed that the female really does lay eggs.
Origin?
What about the history of the platypus? Where did it come from? Why is it only found
in Australia? All fossils found of it are essentially the same as today’s
living creatures. It certainly shows no signs of evolution. Its only significant
change seems to have been to lose some teeth and shrink in size. Indeed, evolutionary
scientists are baffled about the ancestry of the platypus. They openly admit that
nothing is known about its history that can explain its geographical distribution.
But then, all they had to go on until 1984 were two teeth, a jaw fragment, a hip-bone
from the deserts of north-eastern South Australia, and a skull from north-western
Queensland, over 1,200 kilometres away. Evolutionists said these fossil platypus
fragments weren’t useful, since they were merely 15 million years old.
In 1984, however, a platypus jaw with three large teeth was found among a collection
of opalised bones at Lightning Ridge in northern New South Wales and pronounced
to be at least 110 million years old. Naturally, evolutionist scientists were excited.
It seemed they had now established the platypus’s great antiquity. Before
that discovery, they believed no land mammal had been found in Australia in sediments
dated older than 23 million years.
But this platypus jaw did not help the evolutionists discover how the platypus had
evolved. The new jaw was bigger than that of the present-day platypus and had larger
teeth. If anything, it showed that today’s platypus has degenerated since
the time of its ancestor. But evolutionists can never say anything so straight-forward.
Their pronouncements based on the skull included claims such as the platypus must
have undergone such a relatively rapid period of specialisation during the past
15 million years that it has climbed too far out on a long, thin evolutionary limb
and so well may be headed for ‘evolutionary oblivion’. In other words,
there is no evidence that platypuses have evolved, but there is abundant evidence
they have degenerated - which fits the Genesis record precisely.
Creation, Flood, Fossils
So what has been the history of the platypus? Where did it come from? We are told
that God created water creatures on Day Five and the land animals on Day Six of
Creation week, so the first platypuses, even though not mentioned by name, were
obviously included. And we know they survived Noah’s Flood, because God sent
two of every kind of land animal to Noah’s Ark and water creatures didn’t
need to go. It is most likely however, that Noah had a pair of platypuses on board
his Ark, since even though they are water dwellers, it is unlikely the platypuses
would have survived the raging flood waters. How did the platypuses get to Australia
after Noah’s Flood? If they were on the Ark they obviously swam and walked
here from Mt. Ararat. This would have taken years, even centuries. The platypuses
could have used any land bridges that existed between Asia and Australia as a result
of the drastic lowering of sea level during the ice age subsequent to the Flood.
But once the ice age ended and the land bridges disappeared, the platypuses were
left to thrive in isolation on their island continent home.
Magnificent Design
Some of the most marvellous engineering in God’s creation can be seen in this
shy ball of fur. When under water the platypus catches its food with its ears and
eyes firmly shut. They are enclosed in a facial furrow. So how does it find food
on the murky river beds? Platypuses don’t stay under water long to collect
food; only a minute or two before surfacing. Then another minute or two at the surface
to sort and chew its food, which it holds in large cheek pouches, before diving
again. This feeding process may total 12 hours a day.
Researchers didn’t even know this was such a puzzle until recently. It was
assumed that the dumb platypus hadn’t ‘evolved’ far enough to
be a smart food collector and he simply blundered along stream beds, swamps or ponds,
grabbing any potluck delicacies he came across.
New Discovery
Scientists have only recently learnt that this amazing animal doesn’t blunder
in the mud at all. Its bill is a highly tuned receptor that picks up the weak electric
fields of the shrimps and worms it eats. This sense is so sharp it can even detect
prey under mud, rocks and minor debris. Alongside a created ability like this, man’s
invention of the metal detector pales into insignificance.
Out of the water, the platypus’s hearing is acute. And its beady eyes are
well placed for scanning the river banks. When disturbed it growls like a puppy,
or rumbles like a broody hen pulled from her nest. Its short legs have strong claws
and webbed feet, but unlike a duck it can roll this webbing up into its palms to
free its claws for digging. And digging is important for the platypus, for it digs
a long winding tunnel up to 20 metres long into the stream bank in which the mother
lays her eggs. As she may use this burrow in future years, it can become steadily
longer and more elaborate.
Home Sweet Home
The platypus burrow is of two kinds. One is used as a living room by both sexes
except in the breeding season where it is used as the bachelor apartment. This burrow
is usually semicircular with entrances at each end concealed by overhanging ledges,
and is often beneath the roots of a large tree.
The mother digs the second type of burrow for breeding, and adds to it a ‘nursery’,
or nesting chamber. The passage conforms to her shape, and is sloped up as a protection
against flood. The entrance is always above water. Any entrances found below the
waterline would have been dug before the water rose, and are never used for entry.
The animal usually spends some time on the bank preening and squeezing water from
its fur before entering its home as dry as possible.
She may fit out her nest with gum leaves, grass, thin willow switches, or reeds
crushed by the mother’s bony jaws. To create ideal brooding conditions, the
mother plugs the burrow behind her at intervals with walls of earth. These plugs
help resist flooding and offer some safety from potential enemies.
The mother usually lays her eggs in pairs. More rarely one or three sticky, soft-skinned
eggs are laid. When she lays three eggs, they are always attached in a triangle.
She then stays in the nest until the children arrive. She holds the eggs to the
middle of her coiled body during incubation, causing the eggs often to stick together.
In 10 days or so her children hatch out.
A week or so later the babies suckle milk from their mother, not from nipples but
from tufts of hair. The platypus is not an ordinary mammal, it’s different.
It’s labelled a monotreme. The mother’s milk seeps into the fur from
enlarged milk glands to feed her blind and helpless new-born babies.
A new generation of remarkable little platypuses are now ready to move into the
world for their 10 to 15-year life span. And a new generation of humans can once
more marvel at this unusual and wonderful creation of God.
Footnote
The young platypuses of both sexes have ‘spurs’ on the inside of their
hind legs. In the female these later disappear, but in the male they develop into
defensive poison spurs which seem to be used only in the mating season. This feature
makes the platypus the world’s only venomous furred creature. If the male
strikes, it may cause effects like snakebite, but no record of human death is known.
The platypus has few natural enemies. They include the Australian reptiles (large
goanna and carpet snake), and the native water-rat, which can destroy young platypuses
in their burrows. The introduced fox is also a problem, for it kills the young when
they first venture out from the nest.
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