WEBVTT - What's the deal with duckbill platypuses? 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to you Stuff you should know front House stuff 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:10.800 Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:13.480 Josh Clark, and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant and the 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:19.239 Stuff you should know, right, Yeah, Zoological Edition. Yeah, I 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:23.560 like these. Yeah. We we try to cover like interesting animals, 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:26.479 not that I mean all interesting animals are fairly interesting, 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:29.440 I think, but we try to like hit up things 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:35.440 like the optopus and the platypus and other pluses. Butterflies 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:38.080 is what you mean. And we did butterflies ones. Yeah, 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:40.120 with the narwhal. We gotta do that at some point too, 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:44.199 not like it's like a dolphin with the tusk. Well, 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:47.879 they'll just be a short one. We just did the narwal. Uh. Yeah, 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:50.400 we were talking today about the platypus. We have not 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:55.720 ever done it before, and despite Jerry's protests to the contrary, 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:58.200 we haven't recorded one. If we have, Chuck and I 0:00:58.200 --> 0:01:01.480 have both gone totally insane and have no recollection of it. 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:04.200 So if we did, let us know, well we covered uh, 0:01:04.880 --> 0:01:08.560 weird animals in Australia or deadly animals in Australia, venomous 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:13.759 animals in Australia. But we have not covered the platypus specifically. 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:16.280 Did we mention the platypus in that because I don't don't. 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:19.640 I don't recall knowing that the platypus had venom. We 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:22.560 definitely didn't. So that's the big twist of this episode. 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:24.800 I'm ruined it for everybody. I'm sorry. Oh man, there's 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:26.800 so many twists with the platypus. You can't this is 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:30.200 spoiler free. So, um, did you know much of this 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:33.760 stuff beforehand? No? And in fact, I did not know 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:35.920 that they were so small. I didn't either. That took 0:01:35.920 --> 0:01:37.920 me by surprise. I thought there may be the size 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:39.920 of like my torso. Yeah, I thought it was like 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:42.639 the size of a of a medium sized dog or something, 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:45.440 or a large beaver. And it kind of looks like 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:47.800 a beaver that stuck its face and something and got 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:50.760 it stuck. Like it looks like a beaver that stuck 0:01:50.760 --> 0:01:53.560 its face in a fake duck bill and can't get 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:56.160 it off. It's not a very cute animal. I want 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:58.160 it to be very cute, and it's just not. I 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:00.360 like it. But they are tiny. That's like the size 0:02:00.360 --> 0:02:02.760 of a very small cat even Yeah, they run to 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:05.760 about five pounds a little more, is that, right? I 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:09.280 saw five pounds somewhere. Yeah. They what's interesting is they 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:12.280 well they're only found in Eastern Australia up and down 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:14.920 the coast down to the island of Tasmania, right, and 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:18.600 they live in woodlands and rivers. Yeah. And the ones 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:23.440 in the south though are um larger, is there? Yeah, 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:25.200 though they can get up to like six pounds, and 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:28.560 the ones in the north up in like the Queensland coast, 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:30.399 they're like some of those like two and a half 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:32.840 three pounds. They're just teeny little cute guys. They're like 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:35.880 teacup platypus. Yeah. So I've always just seen pictures of 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:39.480 them without a human around a human did I say human? 0:02:40.480 --> 0:02:43.000 And um, then when I saw I watched a bunch 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:44.960 of videos today when I saw the people holding them up, 0:02:44.960 --> 0:02:48.320 I was like, that's just a little thing. So yeah, 0:02:48.560 --> 0:02:50.840 my answer the long window lay saying I didn't know 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:52.440 much about them, Well, you know, I didn't know much 0:02:52.480 --> 0:02:54.520 about him either, And it turns out that, um, most 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:57.240 people don't because I've seen a lot of different stuff 0:02:57.280 --> 0:03:00.639 like that. Just that weight discrepancy is is just one example. 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:04.560 Like um, like we said, platypuses They spend most of 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:07.919 their lives along river banks and freshwater river banks, we 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:12.600 should say, are there saltwater rivers? Truly, there's like tidal 0:03:12.639 --> 0:03:16.320 creeks and stuff like that. These guys are freshwater animals, um, 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:19.080 And they hold their breath when they go eat food 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:23.040 because they're actually bottom feeders. But um, they I saw 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:26.280 a lot of different variations and estimates of how long 0:03:26.360 --> 0:03:28.960 they could hold their breath. Thirty seconds I saw all 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:31.919 over the place. One person said, eight minutes. I think 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:37.080 one source said, I don't know five. I think it's 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:40.280 what one source said. So I've seen all over the place. 0:03:40.320 --> 0:03:44.880 But the point is there's a lot of random facts 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:47.880 floating around about platypuses, and we're gonna compile them all 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:52.760 together here. That's right. Um. I was instantly surprised by 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:54.480 the fact that they were just on the east coast 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:58.040 of Australia. Didn't know that, right, I knew Australia. I 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:00.720 didn't even know that now first some reason, I don't know. 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:04.320 I just didn't know that. So apparently, after Pangaea split, 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:08.760 it evolved on one of the huge chunks of land 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:13.240 called Gondwana. Then that split formed Australia and South America 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:16.040 and some other places, and they were in South America 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:18.520 and Australia at the time, and then the ones in 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:23.800 South America died off and all he's just like, it's ours, right, 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:27.520 what was that? What happened? Just now? That was Australia. Okay, 0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:32.640 that was my best stab um and we the duck 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:35.680 built platypus. As far as it it's called today, that's 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:39.200 obviously a European term for it. And it wasn't until 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:44.360 almost the nineteenth century that the platypus um was first 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:48.880 encountered by Europeans. Before that, Aborigines obviously had run into 0:04:48.920 --> 0:04:53.240 them before. They had names for him like Malanong, Bundabura, 0:04:53.880 --> 0:04:59.000 uh tambret a, better names than duck build platypus. Yeah, 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:02.760 agreed um. So that the Aborigines knew about it, and 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:07.240 the first white colonists that showed up in Australia, I guess, 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:09.120 heard legends of these things and then started to see 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:14.320 them themselves. And even though these were Europeans telling other Europeans, Hey, 0:05:14.360 --> 0:05:17.080 there's this really weird animal down here. There's a bunch 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:19.279 of weird animals, like you're not gonna believe the kangaroo 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:21.480 but this thing has got it, like all of them 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:24.200 beat and people in Europe are like, you're full of it. 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:28.480 And they even sent them specimens, stuffed specimens, and the 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:32.520 the Texa germists and the naturalists and biologists back in 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:35.359 Europe said, I still don't believe it because at the time, 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:39.760 have you ever seen the mermaid mummies? Yeah, the Chinese 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:42.960 were they were in the fabricating animals. Yeah, so everybody 0:05:42.960 --> 0:05:45.640 thought it was just a Chinese thing until somebody finally 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:48.839 got their hands on one, uh and dissected it. His 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:52.400 name was Everard Jones, and he proclaimed them real in 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:55.520 eighteen o two. Yeah. It's funny that for a while 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:57.240 they're like, no, no, no, this went through that. I 0:05:57.240 --> 0:05:59.039 think they call it the Indian Seas at the time, 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:01.839 they're like went close to China and you know that 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:04.160 they're just nuts over there with this stuff. Yeah, it's 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:06.840 a rogue taxidermy pretty much. What's kind of cool that 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:09.320 they were doing that, though, I wonder if it was 0:06:09.400 --> 0:06:12.360 just like a creative thing or what were they doing. 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:15.640 They were selling them to sailors. It's like as some 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:17.880 sort of scam as a yeah, as a mermaid. They're like, 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:21.840 these are real mermaids from what I understand, like the 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:28.320 sea monkeys that you defend, but even less real. So, um, 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:31.960 we finally established a ten o two that platypuses are real, 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:34.960 and we start to just really dig in to figure 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:38.400 out what is going on with these things, and the 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:42.919 more we dig in, the stranger things become. So, for example, 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:47.080 chuck platypus, it's a mammal, and the reason it's a 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:51.120 mammal is because it nurses, it's young, and it has 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:56.440 for yet it doesn't have nipples. No, it secretes its 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:59.119 milk through its abdomen like it's just leaking or something 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:02.320 through poor and the little they're called puggles, they're young, 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:06.800 are and the puggles just suckle on the abdomen and 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:10.080 it's a very odd thing in in nature for that 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:13.960 to happen. It is peculiar. Yeah, very peculiar. Yeah. Um, okay, 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:17.720 so they're mammals, but they're not just mammals. They also 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:21.160 straddle the line like that. Basically, the platypusts exists to 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:27.280 strain the taxonomic system of classification of animals. They have 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:30.480 that duck bill, that pesky duck bill. Yeah, and the 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:33.120 web feet so it's like, all right, so they're birds, right, 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:38.160 I guess, but I thought we just said they were mammals. 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:41.400 Officially they are mammals. That's not going to change, although 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:43.800 you never know. But yeah, they do have the web 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:45.760 feet and the duck bill and then they also have 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:51.080 um certain uh, they have eyes like a reptile. They 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:54.880 lay eggs like a reptile. Amphibians they suckle their young 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:59.320 through their abdomens with milk, but they give birth to eggs, 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:03.880 so that's not supposed to happen either. No, the female 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:06.360 they have two ovaries, one of them functions, one of 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:08.800 them doesn't, and they lay these, you know, one to 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:11.480 three little leathery eggs. They're a little more round than 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:15.200 the oval bird eggs, but there their eggs. And they're 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:17.480 born with teeth that fall out. Then they have these 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:19.800 little horny plates that they mash their food up with. Yeah, 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:22.760 they don't have teeth, they're just weird. They're born with teeth, right, 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:28.440 which actually it's funny because um, both creationists and evolutionists 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:32.400 hold the platypus up as evidence of their beliefs. The 0:08:32.480 --> 0:08:36.600 creationists are like, if anything, it's reverse evolutions. They lose 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:40.599 their teeth right, and like you this this thing was 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:44.559 obviously assembled, right, Like what what evolves over hundreds of 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:46.839 millions of years living by water but can only hold 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:49.680 its breath for thirty seconds? Thirty seconds means depending on 0:08:49.720 --> 0:08:54.200 who you ask, say the creationists evolutionists say, well, no, 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:57.559 I mean, like what this is probably the earliest example 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:02.000 of a mammal to branch off from the the mammalian line, 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:05.480 so it fills in the gaps between us and our distant, 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:10.520 distant ancestry. It's a great example of evolution. The fact is, 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:14.240 like we're we still don't quite know what the deal 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:17.480 is with this thing, even after mapping it's genome. Yeah, 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:19.880 I bet you there's a political, great political cartoon out 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:24.440 there with a like a Christian pulling on the duck 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:27.600 bill and an evolutionist pulling on the tail the platypus 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:30.760 in the middle, Like, yeah, I just want to live, right, 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:33.520 I guess it just wrote a political cartoon. Don't put 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:36.559 your hang ups on me. Yeah, exactly. All we need 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:38.679 to do is be able to draw, would be said, 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:46.760 so the the the the strange parade of character traits, 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:49.920 character traits that would be what, like whether it was 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:53.440 good to its mother or something. Um of um what 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:57.120 is it called phenotypes? Just biological traits? I guess yeah, 0:09:57.280 --> 0:10:01.079 that strange parade of those that has ended yet. No 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:11.600 platypuses are just one of two members of monotreams mammalion monotreams. Okay, 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:15.520 because birds are monotreams because they poop and hatche eggs 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:21.120 out of the same hole called the cloaca. Yeah yeah, um, 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:24.080 but I guess as far as what you're saying mammals 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:26.840 are concerned, there's the spiny ant eater and the platypus 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:29.959 are the only ones who excrete and shoot eggs out 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:32.400 of one hole? Is that the what the kidneys? That 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:35.320 is spiny an eater. It looks like a porcupine with 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:39.800 like kind of a longer nose. Yeah. So they have 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:42.600 one one hole to do their business with and one 0:10:42.640 --> 0:10:45.000 hole to lay their eggs with, which is also business. 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:49.319 I guess you're right, and that is very much bird like. 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:51.719 But like I said, the eye structure is more reptilian. 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:55.800 So you said the eggs were leathery, that's pretty reptilian. Yeah, 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:58.320 they're just all over the map. It gets even stranger 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:00.760 than that that. What else we go let's let's look 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:05.000 a little deeper on that duck bill. There's tiny little pores. Right. 0:11:05.280 --> 0:11:07.400 For a long time, scientists were like, how we know 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:09.679 that these things when they dive, their bottom feeders, they 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:13.000 feed on shellfish, insects, things that live along the muck 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:16.040 of the bottom of the river. Um, we know that 0:11:16.080 --> 0:11:19.280 they close their eyes and they close their nostrils when 0:11:19.320 --> 0:11:23.079 they dive, So how are they locating food? And they 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:25.520 figured out that there's tiny little holes on their duck 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:29.160 bill that um have electro receptors in them, just like 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:32.720 a shark. Yeah. Like I think we've talked multiple times 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:35.560 about the nose of a shark. That's why you punch 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:37.840 the shark in the nose, and that's how they feed 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:40.800 is because that will disrupt their their brain if you 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:44.520 give them a good sock in those electrical receptors. And yeah, 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:48.480 and it's very similar this. Um. They they sense movement 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:51.760 through these receptors and they're blind to everything, and this 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:54.000 is how they find the shell fish and all that stuff. Yeah, 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:57.760 these receptors are so sensitive that even just the tiny 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:01.720 movement of an insect's leg, the change in the electrical 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:04.520 current in the water that that produces their electro receptors 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:06.960 pick up. That's how they go eat, and they get 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:10.120 a scoop ful of food and they kind of pocket 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:12.719 it in their cheek for a little while until they 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:14.720 come back up. And then once they do, they use 0:12:14.800 --> 0:12:17.400 a bit of the grit on the river bottom to 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:20.160 help with their teeth plates or whatever you call it, 0:12:20.559 --> 0:12:25.000 to grind the food downs. Well, their their horny plates 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:28.400 are aided with gravel. Yeah, Ok, then they choose. So 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:30.000 all right, we're starting to get kind of a handle 0:12:30.040 --> 0:12:31.600 on this thing, right, So that's got to be the 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:34.800 last weird thing, right, it is not we we've already 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:38.600 mentioned it. But they produce venom. They're one of only 0:12:38.760 --> 0:12:41.560 three types of mammals that produce vendom. So think about this. 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:48.240 You've got the kidness, the spiny anneater. It's the only 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:50.920 other monitoring but it doesn't have a duck bill. It 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:53.199 doesn't play because it doesn't do all this other weird stuff. 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:59.079 You've got a certain kind of shrew and selinodones dons. 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:05.000 Uh they are. They produce phantom, right, but they also 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:06.880 don't have duck bills. They also don't have a lecture. 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:10.960 A senters duck built Platypuses are the strangest, hands down 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:15.240 animal around. Hodgepods is the best way to describe them. 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:17.280 They are a hodgepods and they straddle all these different 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:21.960 um different classes. And in the end, I saw an 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:24.160 interview with one lady who had worked on the genome project, 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:26.000 which we'll get to, and she was like, when you're 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:28.320 talking genetics like this, she was like, weird is good. 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:32.160 She's like, this is awesome for us because it shows uh. 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:36.880 I think she called it um informative variation. And so 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:40.120 if you learn about all these weird things that a 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:43.240 platypus has and it's in its genetic code, it can 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:45.439 help fill in because we're mammals too, some of the 0:13:45.440 --> 0:13:48.200 stuff that we may not know about and ways that 0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:52.560 we are different and similar. It just helps inform you know, 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:56.720 everything basically all there with a little genome of the platypus, right, 0:13:56.760 --> 0:14:00.000 And actually not only the differences are good, but also 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:04.240 any similarities between us and them also shows well, this 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:06.800 is a very very ancient trait since they branched off 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:09.280 of mammals a hundred and sixty six million years ago. 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:17.120 Like you have any venomous stabber in your heel, right now. 0:14:17.200 --> 0:14:21.160 I try not to use it sometimes, you know, it's 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:24.040 it's easier to just not use than other times. But yes, 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:27.560 I do well, and they actually do. They have venom, 0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:29.640 and I think it's that just the males have that 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:32.360 spur on the hind foot. Yeah, and they mostly produce 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:34.960 the venom during spring, which is why they think that 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:39.680 it's probably used to fight with other males. They live solitary. Yeah, 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:41.800 that would make sense because the females are born with 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:44.080 one and it falls off, so they wouldn't need one 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:46.920 for that. Yeah, and then so males will fight with 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:50.080 one another, four females mate and then take off, and 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:52.640 then that's that. Like everybody's kind of lives on their 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:56.320 own over like a set amount of territory as a platypus. Right, 0:14:56.760 --> 0:15:00.880 But that that venom doesn't kill other platypus is, but 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:03.000 it could kill a dog and it has before. Yeah, 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:05.080 I'm surprised it doesn't kill another platypus. They might have 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:07.880 some resistance, that's what I think. Yeah, it's got to 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:12.080 because they're smaller than most dogs exactly. Um, it hasn't 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:15.000 ever killed a human, but humans have been known to 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:18.680 get stung by these things, and brother. Does it hurt? 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:21.960 And the reason it hurts is because it is a 0:15:22.040 --> 0:15:26.640 mammalian venom and we have no known cure or treatment 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:29.680 for the pain caused by that. So if you are 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:32.720 stung by one of them, you are totally on your 0:15:32.760 --> 0:15:35.120 own as far as pain management goes. There's nothing that 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:37.480 can be done. You're just sitting there in agony for 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:40.120 like a week or two until it works itself out. Yeah. 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:42.560 I think it's supposed to suck pretty bad, like swelling 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:45.000 and just lots of pain, right, And like you said, 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:47.320 if there's nothing that can be done, you just ride 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:50.360 around and curse the platypus, I guess. And that's why 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:51.640 you hold them by the tail too. By the way, 0:15:51.680 --> 0:15:54.440 if you ever got to grab a platypus, grab him 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:57.760 by the tail because they don't mind. Yeah, and they 0:15:57.800 --> 0:15:59.720 can't well yeah, but a possum doesn't have a spur 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:02.760 in the No. But they'll bite you, Oh man, they will. 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:05.720 They're mean. I don't know if that's true actually, but 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:07.880 they hiss. Oh no, they're real means, are they. Yeah, 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:09.600 they'll try to bite you. They'll try to curl up. 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:11.400 If you hold the end of their tail, they'll curl 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:13.800 themselves up trying to get to your wrist, which you 0:16:13.840 --> 0:16:15.600 really can't blame them. They're trying to get you to 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:19.000 let them go. But yeah, they'll bite you. They'll they'll 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:21.080 kill you in your whole family if you'd let them. 0:16:21.280 --> 0:16:23.480 I remember I was actually one of my first dates 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:27.600 with my high school girlfriend. We know, it may have 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:29.800 been my first date. Actually I walked her back up 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:31.120 to the front porch at the end of the night 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:32.880 and it was that, you know, it's like something on 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:35.200 Norman Rockwell, like, all right, I'm gonna get that first kiss. 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:37.840 We walked up on the porch and it was probably 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:39.600 like four by four or small, and there was a 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:43.080 freaking possum up there that got stuck like trying to 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:45.560 get out, and was just we were sharing this very 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:48.760 small space with this bowesome like hissing at us and 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:52.720 screaming at us, and it made for a very memorable 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:54.880 into the evening. I'm sure. And I don't think I 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.280 got the kissing. I know. I thought, you're gonna say 0:16:57.320 --> 0:16:58.760 her dad came out to meet you, and he turned 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:03.520 out to be a giant post them that didn't happen. Um, 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:06.000 what else we were talking about the Platypus Genome Project. 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:08.400 Do you sound like you know more about that than me. Well, 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:11.399 they did this, um a hundred scientists got together in 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:13.520 two thousand eight and said, you know what, if we 0:17:13.560 --> 0:17:15.520 can figure this thing out, maybe we can help inform 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:20.359 our own, you know, human species. And uh. One thing 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:24.600 they did found out is that we have two chromosomes. 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:27.000 We have a pair if your female give me xx 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:30.080 if you're male gam x y. Birds have ZW for 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:35.080 female zz for male. Platypuses have is the platypuses, Yeah, okay, 0:17:35.280 --> 0:17:40.520 they have ten chromosomes, sex chromosomes, and they don't know why. 0:17:40.680 --> 0:17:45.000 It's that complicated. So females have ten xs and males 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:48.200 have x y x y x y x y x y. 0:17:48.359 --> 0:17:52.120 And the deal is they're similar birds in that their 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:55.240 X one chromosome has eleven genes that are found in 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:58.640 almo million X chromosomes, but their X five gene carries 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:01.480 something called d MRT one, and that's found on the 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:05.640 Z chromosomes of birds. So they sort of share these 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:09.199 sex chromosomes with regular mammals and birds. But they have 0:18:09.280 --> 0:18:11.560 ten sets of them. I'm not tin sets, five sets, 0:18:11.600 --> 0:18:13.639 and they're superfluous like there's no reason for them to 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:15.560 have this. They haven't figured it out yet, huh. And 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:17.280 they're still working on that, I guess. But that was 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:20.600 definitely like an interesting find. And they're they're eighty percent 0:18:20.680 --> 0:18:24.080 mammal or they share eighty percent of their DNA with mammals, right, 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:27.640 So that means if they also share some with birds 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:30.200 and they branched off of mammals a hundred and sixty 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:32.200 six million years ago and went off on their own, 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:37.000 then um, that would mean that we're we possibly are 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:40.920 descended from birds as well. Yeah, it definitely writes that question. Um. 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:44.919 And my other question is this like the venom, Like 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:48.560 it's very similar in composition to reptile venom even though 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:52.120 it's mammalian produced. But they figured out from the Platypus 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:56.240 Genome project that it came up independently. Yeah, they didn't 0:18:56.280 --> 0:19:00.679 get it from like a reptilian ancestor. So it almost 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:03.680 like the platypus is almost like this idea that nature 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:06.760 has a finite number of tools and its tool kit 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:12.560 to handle things like reproduction, defense, whatever, and the platypus 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:16.480 represents like all these things just kind of evolving independently 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:18.840 on its own. After it branched off a hundred and 0:19:18.880 --> 0:19:21.840 sixty six million years ago. It's pretty neat. Yeah, I 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:24.320 mean it's maybe the platypus there in lines the key 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:27.480 to it all. Who knows, I sincerely hope not. It's 0:19:27.480 --> 0:19:30.400 a very strange creature. Well, at the very least, it's 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:33.919 it could help us locate and identify new genes and 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:36.120 then sequences that could turn those genes on and off 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:40.359 in us and uh yes, supposedly ovarian cancer there's some 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:45.720 DNA and varying cancer tumors that's found in platypus sex chromosomes. 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:49.679 So who knows that? That was as far as they 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:52.159 got in what I read. They just discovered that, so 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:54.040 they didn't know what to do with it yet. Yeah. 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:56.800 I think this was a great like load up on 0:19:56.800 --> 0:20:00.400 this one people for your next cocktail party, because everyone's like, yea, yeah, 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:02.360 I get it. They got referring, they got a duck bill, 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:04.200 but you can hit him with a bunch of more 0:20:04.200 --> 0:20:07.520 cool stuff. Yeah, like, oh yeah, what about the spur 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:09.960 in the heel? Yeah? What about these chromosomes? How do 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:12.200 you like them? Apples? Like the apples? Put that in 0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:16.000 your pipe and smoking, right, So that's it. For platypus 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:18.400 is for now until they find some other weird thing 0:20:18.400 --> 0:20:22.800 about it, right, yeah, yeah, do you got anything else? Um? 0:20:22.840 --> 0:20:25.320 If you want to learn more about platypus is just 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:28.240 type duck bill into the search bar at how stuff 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:32.399 works dot com. It will bring up this amazing article. Um. 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:35.800 And actually no, this article is written by Conger how 0:20:35.840 --> 0:20:38.879 stuff Works Ryer, it's on animal Planet. To check out 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:42.440 animal planet dot com and try searching for duck Bill platypus. 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:45.359 Very cool. And and now it's time for listener mal right, great, 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:50.879 all right, Josh, I'm gonna call this from Penelope. Okay, 0:20:50.920 --> 0:20:54.480 how simple is that? Hey, guys, big fan. I remember 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:57.119 when how gender reassignment works came up. It was a 0:20:57.119 --> 0:21:01.879 little worried because I fall into the genderquer slash transgender 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:06.240 spectrum somewhere. That's all she says. As most people who 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:07.880 try to talk about it in a non offensive way, 0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:10.520 UH usually fail. Y'all did a really good job, and 0:21:10.520 --> 0:21:13.080 I've had faith ever since then. But I have one 0:21:13.119 --> 0:21:17.480 note in the CPR podcast and you think it happeness related, right, 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:20.560 I know because I've read this email, So you're not 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:23.840 thinking that y'all talked about giving blood and how everyone 0:21:23.840 --> 0:21:25.960 should give blood. UM, I think in times like these 0:21:26.000 --> 0:21:28.720 it's important to keep in mind there's a huge population 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:31.159 of people in the world who cannot give blood because 0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:33.399 of the backwards and outdated thinking of the Red Cross. 0:21:34.160 --> 0:21:37.520 Her words, I'm of course talking about anyone who has 0:21:37.520 --> 0:21:39.800 had sex with a man, who has had sex with 0:21:39.840 --> 0:21:43.560 a man ms MS men who have sex with men 0:21:44.000 --> 0:21:47.879 are indefinitely banned from giving blood. Women who have sex 0:21:48.240 --> 0:21:51.600 with M s M have a one year waiting window 0:21:51.720 --> 0:21:54.680 before they can wait M. I didn't know this. Uh. 0:21:54.680 --> 0:21:59.160 This thinking obviously came from the UH media created aid 0:21:59.240 --> 0:22:02.240