1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:07,640 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff 2 00:00:07,680 --> 00:00:12,280 Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum here. The duck bill platypus has been called 3 00:00:12,320 --> 00:00:14,960 Speaker 1: a lot of things since it arrived on the zoological 4 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:19,119 Speaker 1: scene in seventeen ninety eight, but one adjective that's likely 5 00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:23,320 Speaker 1: never been applied to this mammal is normal. After all, 6 00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:27,840 Speaker 1: its physiology and anatomy borrow from birds, reptiles and mammals, 7 00:00:27,880 --> 00:00:33,120 Speaker 1: and a baffling conglomeration. Biology experts in England laughed off 8 00:00:33,159 --> 00:00:35,920 Speaker 1: the first skin and sketch brought over from its native Australia, 9 00:00:36,040 --> 00:00:38,560 Speaker 1: believing it to be a hoax, and a poorly constructed 10 00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:42,879 Speaker 1: one at that. Because the platypus has fur and the 11 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:46,640 Speaker 1: female nurses it's young, the animal is classified as a mammal, 12 00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:50,839 Speaker 1: But a female platypus doesn't nurse with nipples. Instead, she 13 00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:54,160 Speaker 1: secretes milk into folds of her abdominal skin for the babies, 14 00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:58,480 Speaker 1: called puggles, to suckle on. They have duck bills and 15 00:00:58,520 --> 00:01:04,160 Speaker 1: webbed feet like birds, and lay soft, leathery eggs like reptiles. Also, 16 00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:07,720 Speaker 1: like birds and reptiles, platypuses only have one orifice for 17 00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:12,720 Speaker 1: the excretion of digestive remains and for reproduction the chloeca. 18 00:01:14,240 --> 00:01:16,399 Speaker 1: The only other living mammals on the planet with this 19 00:01:16,440 --> 00:01:20,800 Speaker 1: setup are echidnased. They're together in their own special taxonomical order, 20 00:01:21,120 --> 00:01:27,360 Speaker 1: the monotremes. The platypus even shares a special sensory capability 21 00:01:27,480 --> 00:01:31,039 Speaker 1: with sharks. The platypus lives in and around rivers and 22 00:01:31,120 --> 00:01:34,240 Speaker 1: feeds off of insects, larvae, shellfish, and worms, which it 23 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:38,320 Speaker 1: locates underwater. Because it closes its eyes and seals off 24 00:01:38,360 --> 00:01:42,399 Speaker 1: its nostrils upon submersion, the scientists wondered how it manages 25 00:01:42,440 --> 00:01:46,399 Speaker 1: to hunt without the help of sight or smell. It 26 00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:50,720 Speaker 1: turns out that tiny pores called electroreceptors dot the platypus's bill. 27 00:01:51,640 --> 00:01:54,760 Speaker 1: These pores open up into sensitive nerve endings that can 28 00:01:54,760 --> 00:01:58,480 Speaker 1: detect changes in the electrical current in the water. Those 29 00:01:58,520 --> 00:02:01,720 Speaker 1: electrical currents could be caused by muscle movements or sometimes 30 00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:05,600 Speaker 1: by water rushing over stationary objects. As we've talked about 31 00:02:05,600 --> 00:02:07,960 Speaker 1: on the show before. Elector reception is the method that 32 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:13,240 Speaker 1: lots of sharks used to hunt too. But these surprises 33 00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:17,120 Speaker 1: in this anatomical funhouse don't stop there. We have to 34 00:02:17,160 --> 00:02:23,920 Speaker 1: talk about another reptilian similarity platypus venom. The male platypus 35 00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:27,400 Speaker 1: as a spur on either hind foot that excretes venom. 36 00:02:27,840 --> 00:02:30,480 Speaker 1: Though females are also born with spurs, they fall off 37 00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:34,960 Speaker 1: before adulthood. Aside from two other mammals, a certain species 38 00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:38,680 Speaker 1: of shrew and solenodons, harboring venom is a trait usually 39 00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:43,600 Speaker 1: reserved for reptiles and amphibians. So why would the male 40 00:02:43,600 --> 00:02:48,440 Speaker 1: platypus need venom. This relatively docile animal has few predators, 41 00:02:48,520 --> 00:02:51,760 Speaker 1: which include carpet snakes, eels, and foxes, and it doesn't 42 00:02:51,840 --> 00:02:55,880 Speaker 1: use its venom for hunting. The only probable explanation that 43 00:02:55,919 --> 00:02:58,040 Speaker 1: researchers have come up with is that males use it 44 00:02:58,040 --> 00:03:03,120 Speaker 1: offensively during mating competition. To back this up, researchers point 45 00:03:03,160 --> 00:03:05,799 Speaker 1: to the fact that the male platypus produces venom mostly 46 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:10,600 Speaker 1: during the spring, which is when platypus couples breed. Apparently, 47 00:03:10,639 --> 00:03:13,240 Speaker 1: the venom isn't meant to kill other males, only to 48 00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:18,280 Speaker 1: provide for a rousing fight. That said, for a human, 49 00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:20,880 Speaker 1: getting hit with a dose of platypus venom is said 50 00:03:20,919 --> 00:03:24,440 Speaker 1: to really hurt, even though the platypus only weighs around 51 00:03:24,440 --> 00:03:27,760 Speaker 1: five pounds that's about two point two kilos. There have 52 00:03:27,800 --> 00:03:31,359 Speaker 1: been recorded deaths due to platypus venom in pets like dogs. 53 00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:34,880 Speaker 1: There have been no recorded human fatalities, but the venom 54 00:03:34,920 --> 00:03:37,760 Speaker 1: will cause swelling at the wound site, an extreme pain 55 00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:40,920 Speaker 1: that can last for weeks and isn't touched by drugs 56 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:45,240 Speaker 1: like morphine. Platypus venom share some molecules also found in 57 00:03:45,280 --> 00:03:48,600 Speaker 1: reptile venom, but researcher is determined that the platypus's venom 58 00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:55,720 Speaker 1: evolved separately, and weirdly enough, this offensive adaptation could end 59 00:03:55,800 --> 00:03:59,720 Speaker 1: up helping humans. Since the platypus is one of only 60 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:03,520 Speaker 1: three mammals that produces venom, researchers want to determine the 61 00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:08,360 Speaker 1: specific pain response pathway that it stimulates in humans, because again, 62 00:04:08,760 --> 00:04:12,760 Speaker 1: our available painkillers don't affect it. They could then utilize 63 00:04:12,760 --> 00:04:17,320 Speaker 1: that information to develop new pain relief medications and possibly antibiotics. 64 00:04:19,720 --> 00:04:22,679 Speaker 1: Due to the platypus's many anomalies, more than one hundred 65 00:04:22,760 --> 00:04:26,960 Speaker 1: scientists collaborated for the Platypus Genome Project, which they completed 66 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:29,840 Speaker 1: in spring of two thousand and eight. Like the human 67 00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:33,680 Speaker 1: Genome Project. This undertaking sought to map the entire platypus 68 00:04:33,720 --> 00:04:37,480 Speaker 1: genome to understand how an animal with such a hodgepodge 69 00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:41,920 Speaker 1: of traits could have possibly evolved. They determined the platypuses 70 00:04:41,960 --> 00:04:44,920 Speaker 1: split from our last common ancestor about one hundred and 71 00:04:44,920 --> 00:04:48,320 Speaker 1: sixty six million years ago and share about eighty percent 72 00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:52,160 Speaker 1: of the same genetic coating as other mammals. One thing 73 00:04:52,200 --> 00:04:54,200 Speaker 1: that's different is that they don't have the X and 74 00:04:54,320 --> 00:04:57,560 Speaker 1: Y chromosomes that determine the sexes of offspring like in 75 00:04:57,600 --> 00:05:02,440 Speaker 1: many other mammals. Instead, platypus sex chromosomes more closely resemble 76 00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:05,800 Speaker 1: those of primitive birds, which could provide insight into the 77 00:05:05,839 --> 00:05:11,240 Speaker 1: genetic footprinting that led to our own coding. Now that 78 00:05:11,279 --> 00:05:14,920 Speaker 1: scientists know more about how this Australian animal evolved, it's 79 00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:17,680 Speaker 1: raised more questions as to why it is the way 80 00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:20,760 Speaker 1: it is and how it relates to mammals and birds 81 00:05:20,760 --> 00:05:25,360 Speaker 1: and reptiles. In just over two hundred years, the platypus 82 00:05:25,360 --> 00:05:29,040 Speaker 1: has ascended from a tax durmy hoax to a venomous 83 00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:37,839 Speaker 1: guide into the animal kingdom's many genetic puzzles. Today's episode 84 00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:40,479 Speaker 1: is based on the article code a platypus poison Me 85 00:05:40,600 --> 00:05:43,600 Speaker 1: on how stuffworks dot com, written by Kristin Conger. Brain 86 00:05:43,600 --> 00:05:46,320 Speaker 1: Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how stuffworks 87 00:05:46,320 --> 00:05:48,760 Speaker 1: dot Com, and it is produced by Tyler Klang. For 88 00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:52,760 Speaker 1: more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 89 00:05:52,839 --> 00:06:01,640 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.