1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:13,880 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:18,280 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy the Wilson and I'm Holly Frying. A while back, 4 00:00:18,320 --> 00:00:20,520 Speaker 1: I was wishing I had an episode to work on 5 00:00:20,840 --> 00:00:24,000 Speaker 1: that was something along the lines of the pilt Down Man. 6 00:00:24,840 --> 00:00:27,520 Speaker 1: The pilt Down Man was a case of scientific fraud. 7 00:00:27,600 --> 00:00:30,880 Speaker 1: It was a skull that was purportedly fossil evidence of 8 00:00:30,880 --> 00:00:35,040 Speaker 1: an evolutionary missing link, but really it was a total fabrication. 9 00:00:36,040 --> 00:00:39,040 Speaker 1: Threw a ranch into the study of human evolution. But 10 00:00:39,240 --> 00:00:41,960 Speaker 1: researching that one involved reading a lot of old science 11 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:45,000 Speaker 1: writing in which people were very authoritatively saying stuff that 12 00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:49,919 Speaker 1: was totally wrong, and I just I enjoyed that research process. 13 00:00:50,120 --> 00:00:52,879 Speaker 1: I even talk in the episode of how I enjoyed 14 00:00:52,960 --> 00:00:57,680 Speaker 1: that process thanks to a totally random Jeopardy rerun that 15 00:00:57,720 --> 00:00:59,760 Speaker 1: I saw while I was visiting my parents. I had 16 00:00:59,800 --> 00:01:02,680 Speaker 1: an an idea for an episode that's almost the opposite 17 00:01:02,680 --> 00:01:05,480 Speaker 1: of The pilt Down Man, because it's about how when 18 00:01:05,520 --> 00:01:09,679 Speaker 1: European naturalists saw a platypus for the first time, it 19 00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:12,000 Speaker 1: was so bizarre to them that they thought it was fake. 20 00:01:13,480 --> 00:01:17,000 Speaker 1: Then they argued about how to classify the platypus in 21 00:01:17,040 --> 00:01:21,760 Speaker 1: the taxonomy of animals for almost a century. This was 22 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:26,400 Speaker 1: happening in tandem with similar discussions about another Australian mammal, 23 00:01:26,520 --> 00:01:30,240 Speaker 1: which is the kidna or spiny ant eater, and it 24 00:01:30,319 --> 00:01:33,560 Speaker 1: was part of just discussions of the scientific taxonomy in general. 25 00:01:34,080 --> 00:01:35,520 Speaker 1: That's what we're going to talk about today. And just 26 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:39,240 Speaker 1: as a heads up, European research into the anatomy and 27 00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:43,039 Speaker 1: morphology of these animals included shooting a lot of them. 28 00:01:43,440 --> 00:01:48,400 Speaker 1: Just be aware. So, the platypus is a mammal native 29 00:01:48,440 --> 00:01:52,960 Speaker 1: to Eastern Australia, Tasmania and the surrounding islands. They're fairly 30 00:01:53,040 --> 00:01:55,840 Speaker 1: unique in the animal world. And if you've never seen one, 31 00:01:56,680 --> 00:01:59,520 Speaker 1: but you have seen lots of more typical mammals, I 32 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:03,280 Speaker 1: think it's seem incredibly weird. Yeah, if you're if you're 33 00:02:03,720 --> 00:02:07,720 Speaker 1: animal experience with mammals is like bears and cats and dogs, 34 00:02:08,760 --> 00:02:12,360 Speaker 1: you look at a platypus and you're like, what is this? Yeah, 35 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:15,239 Speaker 1: I'll tell a story in our behind the scenes about 36 00:02:15,280 --> 00:02:17,400 Speaker 1: the first time I saw a platypus or an image 37 00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:19,880 Speaker 1: of a platypus. I should say, Okay, they have for 38 00:02:20,200 --> 00:02:22,720 Speaker 1: like a mammal, but a bill that looks like it 39 00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:26,680 Speaker 1: belongs on a bird, thus the name duck build platypus, 40 00:02:26,720 --> 00:02:29,880 Speaker 1: although that bill is really a sensory organ that's a 41 00:02:29,880 --> 00:02:33,679 Speaker 1: lot more flexible than a duck's bill. Males have spurs 42 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:36,560 Speaker 1: on their hind legs that are equipped with venom glands, 43 00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:41,200 Speaker 1: something that's way more common among reptiles. Platypuses produce milk 44 00:02:41,280 --> 00:02:43,880 Speaker 1: to feed their young like other mammals do, but they 45 00:02:43,960 --> 00:02:48,240 Speaker 1: also lay eggs, which is something the overwhelming majority of 46 00:02:48,280 --> 00:02:52,960 Speaker 1: other mammals do not do. It's a quite a while 47 00:02:53,080 --> 00:02:56,960 Speaker 1: for European naturalists to figure out the whole milk production 48 00:02:57,040 --> 00:03:00,720 Speaker 1: and egg laying situation, which is going to be a 49 00:03:00,760 --> 00:03:04,440 Speaker 1: big part of this episode. But even without those details, 50 00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:10,000 Speaker 1: the platypus just seemed bizarre. In British Royal Navy officer 51 00:03:10,080 --> 00:03:13,640 Speaker 1: John Hunter, who would later become Governor of New South 52 00:03:13,680 --> 00:03:17,160 Speaker 1: Wales Colony, wrote that the platypus had come to be 53 00:03:17,320 --> 00:03:22,160 Speaker 1: thanks to quote a promiscuous intercourse between the different sexes 54 00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:25,600 Speaker 1: of all these different animals. In other words, lots of 55 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:28,799 Speaker 1: different animals had mated with one another, and the platypus 56 00:03:28,840 --> 00:03:33,760 Speaker 1: was the result That sounds kind of cookie today. But 57 00:03:33,880 --> 00:03:37,640 Speaker 1: this was not just a random colonial officials rambling on 58 00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:40,680 Speaker 1: the subject. Hunter was a naturalist himself. He was a 59 00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:43,600 Speaker 1: member of the Royal Society. I mean I could see 60 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:47,760 Speaker 1: where there's no other explanations. I probable my child logic 61 00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:50,440 Speaker 1: for where such animals came from, right, that would lead 62 00:03:50,480 --> 00:03:54,000 Speaker 1: you to that sort of conclusion. But of course Australia's 63 00:03:54,040 --> 00:03:57,920 Speaker 1: first people's have known about these animals for thousands of years. 64 00:03:58,360 --> 00:04:01,160 Speaker 1: The platypus has a role in the Aboriginal religious and 65 00:04:01,200 --> 00:04:05,800 Speaker 1: cultural knowledge that early anthropologists described as the dreaming or 66 00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:09,880 Speaker 1: the dream time. These stories and traditions from all across 67 00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:13,360 Speaker 1: the continent are deeply sacred to Aboriginal and tourist straight 68 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:16,320 Speaker 1: islander people's, so they aren't really ours to share in 69 00:04:16,360 --> 00:04:19,280 Speaker 1: the podcast. But what we do want to stress here 70 00:04:19,360 --> 00:04:21,760 Speaker 1: is that a lot of what Europeans were arguing about 71 00:04:21,880 --> 00:04:25,560 Speaker 1: and trying to prove in the nineteenth century was already 72 00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:32,080 Speaker 1: commonly known among many Aboriginal communities. Scientists simultaneously relied on 73 00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:36,200 Speaker 1: Aboriginal people to help them find platypuses to study, and 74 00:04:36,279 --> 00:04:40,880 Speaker 1: also disregarded their knowledge about their physiology. One of the 75 00:04:40,920 --> 00:04:44,120 Speaker 1: reasons why the platypus was so baffling to Europeans and 76 00:04:44,160 --> 00:04:48,000 Speaker 1: the nineteenth century was that naturalists and anatomists and other 77 00:04:48,080 --> 00:04:53,119 Speaker 1: such specialists had been methodically cataloging and categorizing life on Earth, 78 00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:58,240 Speaker 1: starting primarily with Swedish naturalist Carlinaeus in his System and 79 00:04:58,320 --> 00:05:01,360 Speaker 1: a Tire or System of Nature. In seventeen thirty five, 80 00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:06,720 Speaker 1: Linnaeus created a taxonomy that arranged life into a hierarchy. 81 00:05:06,760 --> 00:05:09,800 Speaker 1: And this was a hierarchy that was based on observable 82 00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:13,600 Speaker 1: characteristics and traits. And this was not the world's first 83 00:05:13,640 --> 00:05:17,839 Speaker 1: attempt to classify and categorize life on Earth by any means. 84 00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:22,719 Speaker 1: There's evidence of classification systems in ancient Chinese and Egyptian texts, 85 00:05:23,080 --> 00:05:27,560 Speaker 1: and Aristotle and his contemporaries created basic taxonomies around the 86 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:31,719 Speaker 1: third and four centuries b C. But Linnaeus established a 87 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:35,080 Speaker 1: system that's at the heart of what's still used today. 88 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:40,000 Speaker 1: It initially described three kingdoms, animal, vegetable and mineral, with 89 00:05:40,120 --> 00:05:45,000 Speaker 1: life in the plant and animal kingdoms arranged by class order, genus, species, 90 00:05:45,040 --> 00:05:48,039 Speaker 1: and variety. And as I said earlier, there was a 91 00:05:48,160 --> 00:05:52,359 Speaker 1: hierarchy to all of this. Animals were of the highest rank, 92 00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:56,440 Speaker 1: and then plants, and then minerals. This idea of a 93 00:05:56,560 --> 00:06:00,000 Speaker 1: hierarchy then carried through each of the kingdoms, so, for example, 94 00:06:00,040 --> 00:06:02,520 Speaker 1: well mammals were up at the top of the animals, 95 00:06:03,200 --> 00:06:06,200 Speaker 1: humans were up at the top of the mammals. These 96 00:06:06,279 --> 00:06:09,560 Speaker 1: hierarchical ideas also went on to form the basis of 97 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:12,760 Speaker 1: scientific racism when they were used to categorize groups of 98 00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:16,520 Speaker 1: people from different parts of the world. In the tenth 99 00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:21,560 Speaker 1: edition of Systeminature, Linnaeus divided the animal world into mammalia 100 00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:26,839 Speaker 1: or mammals a vis or birds, amphibia or amphibians, which 101 00:06:26,920 --> 00:06:33,480 Speaker 1: also included reptiles, pisces or fish, insecta or insects, and vermes, 102 00:06:33,520 --> 00:06:36,719 Speaker 1: which translates to worms but was kind of a catch 103 00:06:36,760 --> 00:06:40,359 Speaker 1: all for invertebrate animals that also didn't have an exo skeleton. 104 00:06:41,200 --> 00:06:44,440 Speaker 1: Warm blooded animals whose hearts had to atrea and two 105 00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:47,680 Speaker 1: ventricles were mammals if they gave birth to live young, 106 00:06:48,160 --> 00:06:52,320 Speaker 1: and birds if they lay eggs. Cold blooded animals whose 107 00:06:52,360 --> 00:06:56,120 Speaker 1: hearts had one atrium and one ventricle were amphibians if 108 00:06:56,120 --> 00:07:00,320 Speaker 1: they breathe through lungs, and fish if they breathe through gills. 109 00:07:01,040 --> 00:07:05,119 Speaker 1: As he described each class in more detail. Linnaeus also 110 00:07:05,240 --> 00:07:09,920 Speaker 1: noted that mammals fed their young through lactiferous teets. The 111 00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:12,560 Speaker 1: Latin word mamma or breast, is the root of the 112 00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:15,800 Speaker 1: word mammal, So this all suggest that in Lenaeus's mind, 113 00:07:16,080 --> 00:07:20,040 Speaker 1: the key features of mammals what was worth naming them 114 00:07:20,080 --> 00:07:25,920 Speaker 1: after was milk production and females. Generally speaking, today's scientific 115 00:07:25,960 --> 00:07:29,960 Speaker 1: taxonomy has more categories at every level and more precise 116 00:07:30,040 --> 00:07:34,120 Speaker 1: methods for determining what goes where than Linnaeus's original work did. 117 00:07:34,840 --> 00:07:37,720 Speaker 1: But this progression has been about more than just adding 118 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:42,760 Speaker 1: more specific and accurate factual details. Linnaeus and his contemporaries 119 00:07:42,800 --> 00:07:45,920 Speaker 1: were also working from the idea that life was just 120 00:07:46,240 --> 00:07:49,800 Speaker 1: as it had always been. The idea of evolution over 121 00:07:49,840 --> 00:07:52,440 Speaker 1: time did not really enter into it for more than 122 00:07:52,480 --> 00:07:57,080 Speaker 1: a century. Instead, Linnaeus framed his work as the categorization 123 00:07:57,120 --> 00:08:00,960 Speaker 1: of God's creations as God had made them, with that 124 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:05,760 Speaker 1: work reflecting God's intentions. God had created all these plants 125 00:08:05,760 --> 00:08:08,960 Speaker 1: and animals. They had been in their present state from 126 00:08:09,040 --> 00:08:12,560 Speaker 1: the time of their creation, so by carefully examining them 127 00:08:12,640 --> 00:08:16,920 Speaker 1: in Linnaeus's mind, you could find an observable, sortable pattern 128 00:08:17,360 --> 00:08:21,160 Speaker 1: that demonstrated the will of God. So with that worldview 129 00:08:21,200 --> 00:08:25,360 Speaker 1: in mind, when Europeans started encountering some of Australia's more 130 00:08:25,480 --> 00:08:28,720 Speaker 1: unique wildlife, they really just did not know what to 131 00:08:28,800 --> 00:08:33,120 Speaker 1: make of it. They defied categorization. You can see this 132 00:08:33,240 --> 00:08:36,120 Speaker 1: confusion in one of the earliest written descriptions of the 133 00:08:36,120 --> 00:08:39,959 Speaker 1: platypus in English, in an Account of the English Colony 134 00:08:40,040 --> 00:08:43,720 Speaker 1: in New South Wales from its first settlement in seventy 135 00:08:43,800 --> 00:08:48,840 Speaker 1: eight to August eighteen o one, with remarks on the dispositions, customs, manners, 136 00:08:48,840 --> 00:08:52,839 Speaker 1: etcetera of the native inhabitants of that country, to which 137 00:08:52,840 --> 00:08:56,200 Speaker 1: are added some particulars of New Zealand. That was written 138 00:08:56,240 --> 00:09:00,200 Speaker 1: by David Collins. Collins had been born in London, had 139 00:09:00,280 --> 00:09:03,600 Speaker 1: arrived in Australia with the first fleet in seventeen eighties six, 140 00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:07,240 Speaker 1: and he served as Deputy Judge Advocate and eventually became 141 00:09:07,280 --> 00:09:10,880 Speaker 1: Lieutenant Governor of New South Wales. He published this book 142 00:09:10,880 --> 00:09:13,720 Speaker 1: in eighteen o two, and in volume two he listed 143 00:09:13,720 --> 00:09:16,760 Speaker 1: a number of the different animals that had been observed 144 00:09:16,840 --> 00:09:20,280 Speaker 1: in the colonies earliest years, before going on to say 145 00:09:20,280 --> 00:09:24,720 Speaker 1: that more recently, quote an amphibious animal of the mole 146 00:09:25,120 --> 00:09:28,240 Speaker 1: species had been spotted on the shore of a lake. 147 00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:31,680 Speaker 1: Collins went on to describe this animal, and that was 148 00:09:31,679 --> 00:09:34,720 Speaker 1: accompanied by a drawing of it by Captain John Hunter, 149 00:09:34,760 --> 00:09:37,640 Speaker 1: who by this point had become Governor of New South Wales. 150 00:09:38,240 --> 00:09:42,600 Speaker 1: Collins described the animal's small eyes and clawed, webbed feet 151 00:09:42,679 --> 00:09:46,840 Speaker 1: before saying quote, the tail of this animal was thick, short, 152 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:51,000 Speaker 1: and very fat. But the most extraordinary circumstance observed in 153 00:09:51,040 --> 00:09:53,959 Speaker 1: its structure was its having, instead of the mouth of 154 00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:57,160 Speaker 1: an animal, the upper and lower mandibles of a duck. 155 00:09:58,040 --> 00:10:00,400 Speaker 1: By these it was enabled to supply it self with 156 00:10:00,480 --> 00:10:03,800 Speaker 1: food like that bird in muddy places or on the 157 00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:06,400 Speaker 1: banks of the lakes, in which its webbed feet enabled 158 00:10:06,400 --> 00:10:09,679 Speaker 1: it to swim. While on shore it's long and sharp 159 00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:13,679 Speaker 1: claws were employed in burrowing nature, thus providing for it 160 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:18,000 Speaker 1: in its double or amphibious character. These little animals had 161 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:20,800 Speaker 1: been frequently noticed rising to the surface of the water 162 00:10:21,240 --> 00:10:24,560 Speaker 1: and blowing like the turtle. So this was a mole 163 00:10:24,720 --> 00:10:27,840 Speaker 1: and a duck and a turtle. It's just not what 164 00:10:27,960 --> 00:10:31,880 Speaker 1: people were expecting when they showed up in Australia. When 165 00:10:31,960 --> 00:10:36,360 Speaker 1: naturalists in Europe received specimens of the platypus from Hunter, 166 00:10:36,520 --> 00:10:39,360 Speaker 1: They were similarly perplexed by what they were looking at, 167 00:10:39,480 --> 00:10:42,120 Speaker 1: and we will have more on that. After a quick 168 00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:56,480 Speaker 1: sponsor break in, Captain John Hunter sent a sketch of 169 00:10:56,559 --> 00:11:00,079 Speaker 1: the water mole to the Literary and Philosophical Society d 170 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:04,120 Speaker 1: in Newcastle upon time, along with a preserved skin from 171 00:11:04,120 --> 00:11:07,160 Speaker 1: one of the animals. This made its way to George Shaw, 172 00:11:07,400 --> 00:11:10,520 Speaker 1: keeper of the Natural History collections at the British Museum 173 00:11:10,640 --> 00:11:13,960 Speaker 1: which is now the Natural History Museum, but at first 174 00:11:14,040 --> 00:11:17,400 Speaker 1: Show was really not convinced that the skin that he 175 00:11:17,440 --> 00:11:21,480 Speaker 1: had received was authentic. He very carefully started looking for 176 00:11:21,600 --> 00:11:25,360 Speaker 1: signs of stitching, thinking that maybe had somebody had sowed 177 00:11:25,400 --> 00:11:29,600 Speaker 1: a duck's bill onto a mole's body. Of course, he 178 00:11:29,640 --> 00:11:33,560 Speaker 1: found no such evidence, because it was a platypus in 179 00:11:33,720 --> 00:11:38,080 Speaker 1: se Shaw teamed up with illustrator Frederick P. Noder to 180 00:11:38,160 --> 00:11:43,240 Speaker 1: produce the Naturalist's Miscellany, or colored figures of natural objects 181 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:48,680 Speaker 1: drawn and described immediately from nature. In this Shaw wrote, quote, 182 00:11:48,720 --> 00:11:51,520 Speaker 1: of all the mammalia yet known, it seems the most 183 00:11:51,600 --> 00:11:56,120 Speaker 1: extraordinary in its confirmation, exhibiting the perfect resemblance of the 184 00:11:56,160 --> 00:11:59,360 Speaker 1: beak of a duck engrafted on the head of a quadruped. 185 00:12:00,160 --> 00:12:03,400 Speaker 1: So accurate is the similitude that, at first view it 186 00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:09,000 Speaker 1: naturally excites the idea of some deceptive preparation by artificial means. 187 00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:15,079 Speaker 1: The very epidermist proportions seratures, manner of opening, and other particulars, 188 00:12:15,160 --> 00:12:18,000 Speaker 1: is the beak of a shoveler or other broad builled 189 00:12:18,040 --> 00:12:22,560 Speaker 1: species of duck presenting themselves to the view. Nor is it, 190 00:12:22,600 --> 00:12:25,760 Speaker 1: without the most minute and rigid examination, that we can 191 00:12:25,800 --> 00:12:29,400 Speaker 1: persuade ourselves of its being the real beak or snout 192 00:12:29,480 --> 00:12:33,240 Speaker 1: of a quadruped. This work goes on to say, quote, 193 00:12:33,320 --> 00:12:36,440 Speaker 1: the body is depressed and has some resemblance to that 194 00:12:36,559 --> 00:12:39,800 Speaker 1: of an otter in miniature. It is covered with a 195 00:12:39,880 --> 00:12:43,120 Speaker 1: very thick, soft and beaver like fur, and is of 196 00:12:43,160 --> 00:12:48,280 Speaker 1: a moderately dark brown above subfruginous white beneath. The head 197 00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:52,000 Speaker 1: is flattish and rather small than large. The mouth or snout, 198 00:12:52,040 --> 00:12:55,800 Speaker 1: as before observed, so exactly resembles that of some broad 199 00:12:55,920 --> 00:12:59,800 Speaker 1: build species of duck, that it might be mistaken for such. 200 00:13:00,840 --> 00:13:04,200 Speaker 1: Shaw's doubts about what he's looking at are clear. He 201 00:13:04,240 --> 00:13:07,720 Speaker 1: wrote quote on a subject so extraordinarily as the present, 202 00:13:07,880 --> 00:13:12,120 Speaker 1: A degree of skepticism is not only pardonable but laudable. 203 00:13:12,400 --> 00:13:15,560 Speaker 1: And I ought, perhaps to acknowledge that I almost doubt 204 00:13:15,600 --> 00:13:18,640 Speaker 1: the testimony of my own eyes with respect to the 205 00:13:18,679 --> 00:13:22,920 Speaker 1: structure of this animal's beak. Yet must confess that I 206 00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:27,160 Speaker 1: can perceive no appearance of any deceptive preparation. And the 207 00:13:27,320 --> 00:13:31,160 Speaker 1: edges of the rictus, the insertion, etcetera, when tried by 208 00:13:31,160 --> 00:13:34,280 Speaker 1: the test of maceration in water, so as to render 209 00:13:34,400 --> 00:13:39,480 Speaker 1: every part completely movable, seemed perfectly natural. Nor can the 210 00:13:39,520 --> 00:13:44,320 Speaker 1: most accurate examination of expert anatomists discover any deception in 211 00:13:44,400 --> 00:13:49,360 Speaker 1: this particular. Shaw's work here predated David Collins's account of 212 00:13:49,360 --> 00:13:52,120 Speaker 1: the English colony that we read from earlier, so this 213 00:13:52,240 --> 00:13:56,040 Speaker 1: was the first thorough description of a platypus and English writing. 214 00:13:56,679 --> 00:13:59,520 Speaker 1: Shaw also made the first attempt at giving this animal 215 00:13:59,559 --> 00:14:04,240 Speaker 1: a name, which was Platypus anatoust which roughly translated to 216 00:14:04,360 --> 00:14:09,280 Speaker 1: flat footed duck. In eighteen hundred, Thomas Buick published a 217 00:14:09,320 --> 00:14:12,040 Speaker 1: wood engraving of a platypus in the adenda to the 218 00:14:12,080 --> 00:14:16,559 Speaker 1: fourth edition of A General History of Quadrupeds. He didn't 219 00:14:16,679 --> 00:14:20,000 Speaker 1: name the animal, though the engraving was just titled an 220 00:14:20,040 --> 00:14:24,760 Speaker 1: amphibious Animal. In the adenda, he described both the amphibious 221 00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:27,880 Speaker 1: animal and the wombat, which he calls a wombatch. With 222 00:14:27,960 --> 00:14:31,720 Speaker 1: ach ending. He says the aquatic animal quote seems to 223 00:14:31,720 --> 00:14:35,000 Speaker 1: be an animal, Suey Gennaris. It appears to possess a 224 00:14:35,080 --> 00:14:38,840 Speaker 1: threefold nature, that of a fish, a bird, and a quadruped, 225 00:14:39,160 --> 00:14:42,000 Speaker 1: and it is related to nothing that we have hitherto seen. 226 00:14:42,760 --> 00:14:45,320 Speaker 1: We shall not attempt to arrange it in any of 227 00:14:45,320 --> 00:14:49,360 Speaker 1: the useful modes of classification, but content ourselves with giving 228 00:14:49,360 --> 00:14:52,640 Speaker 1: the description of both these curious animals as they have 229 00:14:52,720 --> 00:14:58,880 Speaker 1: been transmitted to us. Suey Gennaris means unique. In eighteen hundred, 230 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:03,840 Speaker 1: also German physician and naturalist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach received a 231 00:15:03,880 --> 00:15:06,760 Speaker 1: platypus skin from Hunter as well. He did his own 232 00:15:06,760 --> 00:15:09,359 Speaker 1: study of it, and since he knew the name platypus 233 00:15:09,400 --> 00:15:12,040 Speaker 1: had already been used on a type of beetle in, 234 00:15:13,320 --> 00:15:19,800 Speaker 1: he chose a different name, Ornithoryncus paradoxus, or paradoxical bird snout. 235 00:15:20,680 --> 00:15:25,680 Speaker 1: Eventually this became Ornithoryncus anatinus, combining the genus that Blumenbach 236 00:15:25,720 --> 00:15:29,040 Speaker 1: had coined with the species from Shaw's name. Even though 237 00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:32,920 Speaker 1: platypus was only briefly part of the proposed scientific name 238 00:15:32,960 --> 00:15:35,200 Speaker 1: for this animal. It really stuck around as the common 239 00:15:35,280 --> 00:15:38,280 Speaker 1: name it outlasted. Lots of other names were things like 240 00:15:38,440 --> 00:15:41,480 Speaker 1: water mole. It just don't have the same beautiful ring. 241 00:15:42,280 --> 00:15:45,400 Speaker 1: These were by far not the only Europeans trying to 242 00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:49,920 Speaker 1: study the platypus, something that was inherently challenging. Most of 243 00:15:49,960 --> 00:15:52,760 Speaker 1: them could not personally make the trip to Australia, and 244 00:15:52,800 --> 00:15:55,200 Speaker 1: they were practically on the other side of the planet 245 00:15:55,560 --> 00:15:58,640 Speaker 1: from where platypuses were, so they had to rely on 246 00:15:58,760 --> 00:16:02,720 Speaker 1: specimens scent by but living in Australia or procured by 247 00:16:02,760 --> 00:16:06,400 Speaker 1: expeditions to the continent. In addition to the time and 248 00:16:06,480 --> 00:16:10,480 Speaker 1: effort involved with that, specimens were often damaged in transit. 249 00:16:10,960 --> 00:16:13,680 Speaker 1: The first skin that George Shaw received was pretty badly 250 00:16:13,760 --> 00:16:17,160 Speaker 1: desiccated by the time he got it. Plus, the ships 251 00:16:17,200 --> 00:16:20,880 Speaker 1: that carried these specimens to Europe typically traveled through waters 252 00:16:20,880 --> 00:16:24,040 Speaker 1: that were also home to ships from Eastern Asia, where 253 00:16:24,080 --> 00:16:27,840 Speaker 1: people were known to use taxidermy to create really convincing 254 00:16:27,920 --> 00:16:32,200 Speaker 1: representations of hybrid animals. These included things like P. T. 255 00:16:32,360 --> 00:16:35,640 Speaker 1: Barnum's Fiji Mermaid, which was the head and torso of 256 00:16:35,680 --> 00:16:38,360 Speaker 1: a monkey sewn to the tail of a fish and 257 00:16:38,440 --> 00:16:43,560 Speaker 1: was reportedly purchased from Japanese sailors. The platypus itself already 258 00:16:43,600 --> 00:16:48,000 Speaker 1: seemed like an improbable animal, so the existence of these 259 00:16:48,040 --> 00:16:50,840 Speaker 1: Taxi Army specimens at it just a whole layer of 260 00:16:50,880 --> 00:16:55,840 Speaker 1: complication and skepticism. Whenever people received do specimens, and when 261 00:16:55,840 --> 00:16:59,640 Speaker 1: researchers did get their hands on equality specimen to study, 262 00:17:00,200 --> 00:17:04,760 Speaker 1: sometimes their findings just made things even more confusing. Outwardly, 263 00:17:04,960 --> 00:17:08,239 Speaker 1: the platypus looked mostly like a mammal except for that 264 00:17:08,359 --> 00:17:11,960 Speaker 1: bird like bill. But in eighteen o two, British surgeon 265 00:17:12,040 --> 00:17:16,440 Speaker 1: and Royal Society fellow Sir Everard Home dissected a platypus 266 00:17:16,480 --> 00:17:20,440 Speaker 1: and found that the male had internal testes, that is 267 00:17:20,480 --> 00:17:24,639 Speaker 1: a trait that's common to reptiles, not mammals. He also 268 00:17:24,680 --> 00:17:27,840 Speaker 1: found that both males and females had a cloaca, that is, 269 00:17:28,280 --> 00:17:30,960 Speaker 1: one orifice to the outside of the body for both 270 00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:35,760 Speaker 1: digestive waste and for reproductive products. That was again something 271 00:17:35,800 --> 00:17:40,040 Speaker 1: that had been found in birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, 272 00:17:40,200 --> 00:17:44,400 Speaker 1: but not in mammals. Not long after Home published work 273 00:17:44,440 --> 00:17:48,879 Speaker 1: on these discoveries, Etienne Jeffroy Saint Hilaire of France coined 274 00:17:48,920 --> 00:17:52,960 Speaker 1: the term monetary to describe both the platypus and the Echidnea, 275 00:17:53,720 --> 00:17:56,920 Speaker 1: deriving the name from Home's discovery of these animals having 276 00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:02,800 Speaker 1: a cloaca. He suggested the monotreams belonged in their own class, 277 00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:07,119 Speaker 1: which he named monotrema. The presence of a cloaca raised 278 00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:11,720 Speaker 1: lots of questions about platypus reproduction. Sir Joseph Banks tasked 279 00:18:11,760 --> 00:18:15,520 Speaker 1: botanical collector George Kayley with going to Australia to look 280 00:18:15,520 --> 00:18:18,920 Speaker 1: into these questions for both the platypus and the Achidna. 281 00:18:19,119 --> 00:18:22,560 Speaker 1: Kayley developed relationships with Aboriginal people to try to learn 282 00:18:22,600 --> 00:18:25,600 Speaker 1: what they already knew. In a eight O three he 283 00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:27,760 Speaker 1: wrote to Banks to say that one man had told 284 00:18:27,840 --> 00:18:32,119 Speaker 1: him that the platypus laid eggs deep underground, but he 285 00:18:32,200 --> 00:18:36,280 Speaker 1: had no physical evidence to prove it. And another pressing 286 00:18:36,400 --> 00:18:39,760 Speaker 1: question was whether platypus is produced milk to feed their young. 287 00:18:40,080 --> 00:18:44,280 Speaker 1: According to scientific understanding at the time, only mammals did that. 288 00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:48,879 Speaker 1: But if platypus has laid eggs, as Kaylee's source had reported, then, 289 00:18:48,920 --> 00:18:52,240 Speaker 1: according to the then current understanding, no mammals did that. 290 00:18:52,800 --> 00:18:55,520 Speaker 1: As a side note, there are some birds that produce 291 00:18:55,640 --> 00:18:58,280 Speaker 1: a milk like substance in a part of their esophagus 292 00:18:58,320 --> 00:19:00,960 Speaker 1: known as the crop. It's no as crop milk or 293 00:19:01,040 --> 00:19:03,880 Speaker 1: pigeon milk, and it plays a similar role to mammals 294 00:19:03,880 --> 00:19:06,639 Speaker 1: milk and nourishing young in the earliest days of their life. 295 00:19:06,640 --> 00:19:09,400 Speaker 1: But that is not what we're talking about here. Now. 296 00:19:09,400 --> 00:19:12,960 Speaker 1: That is a different thing. Because of these questions about 297 00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:16,720 Speaker 1: eggs and milk, though, various experts took the same approach 298 00:19:16,800 --> 00:19:20,359 Speaker 1: as Etienne Geoffroy Saint Hilaire had done, proposing that the 299 00:19:20,359 --> 00:19:25,320 Speaker 1: platypus belonged in the entirely new category. Jehan Baptiste la 300 00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:28,960 Speaker 1: Barc of France proposed the new class called proto Heria 301 00:19:29,119 --> 00:19:33,360 Speaker 1: in eighteen o nine for both platypuses and a kidneys, 302 00:19:33,400 --> 00:19:38,639 Speaker 1: and French zoologist Johann Carl Wilhelm Illiger proposed one called 303 00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:43,800 Speaker 1: Reptantia in eighteen eleven. In eighteen seventeen, French scientist George 304 00:19:43,840 --> 00:19:47,240 Speaker 1: Cuvier placed the platypus and the echidna in a new 305 00:19:47,359 --> 00:19:50,960 Speaker 1: genus within the order eden Tata, which was already home 306 00:19:51,000 --> 00:19:54,840 Speaker 1: to ant eaters and splats, but Cuvier also noted there 307 00:19:54,960 --> 00:19:58,920 Speaker 1: still needed to be an examination of these purported eggs. 308 00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:01,880 Speaker 1: We have mostly been talking about people working from Europe, 309 00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:06,119 Speaker 1: but researchers were at work in Australia as well. Botanical 310 00:20:06,240 --> 00:20:09,480 Speaker 1: collector Sir John Jamison was born in Ireland and moved 311 00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:13,679 Speaker 1: to Australia after inheriting property there in eighteen eleven. In 312 00:20:13,760 --> 00:20:16,680 Speaker 1: eighteen sixteen, he wrote of the platypus quote the female 313 00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:19,800 Speaker 1: is oviparous and lives in burrows in the ground, so 314 00:20:19,840 --> 00:20:22,359 Speaker 1: that it is seldom seen either on shore or in 315 00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:26,159 Speaker 1: the water. This was based on his own observations and 316 00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:29,560 Speaker 1: he was both respected and trained in medicine. But the 317 00:20:29,600 --> 00:20:34,160 Speaker 1: scientific community still wanted proof, and that was challenging because 318 00:20:34,200 --> 00:20:37,840 Speaker 1: those burrows which did exist were hard to find and 319 00:20:38,040 --> 00:20:42,119 Speaker 1: hard to get into. In the eighteen twenties, German anatomus 320 00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:46,879 Speaker 1: Johann Meckel published four influential studies on the platypus. He 321 00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:51,080 Speaker 1: described the venom gland in males and the mammary glands 322 00:20:51,200 --> 00:20:54,200 Speaker 1: and females, although he didn't see any signs of those 323 00:20:54,280 --> 00:20:58,600 Speaker 1: mammary glands being connected to nipples. Then, in eighteen thirty two, 324 00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:03,159 Speaker 1: Lauderdale Maud of Scotland published two papers describing both the 325 00:21:03,240 --> 00:21:07,240 Speaker 1: mammary glands and the milk production in a live platypus 326 00:21:07,840 --> 00:21:11,320 Speaker 1: British comparative. Anatomist Richard Owen, who would go on to 327 00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:15,480 Speaker 1: coin the term dinosaur, confirmed the presence of mammary glands 328 00:21:15,480 --> 00:21:19,400 Speaker 1: in his own paper in eighteen thirty two, including noting 329 00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:22,600 Speaker 1: that they seemed to be enlarged in specimens that also 330 00:21:22,640 --> 00:21:26,480 Speaker 1: showed evidence of having recent activity in their ovaries. That 331 00:21:26,600 --> 00:21:31,400 Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty three, biologist George Bennett discovered that platypus 332 00:21:31,440 --> 00:21:35,600 Speaker 1: milk left the body through pores, sort of like sweat does, 333 00:21:36,760 --> 00:21:39,440 Speaker 1: and then it collected on the abdomen for the young 334 00:21:39,520 --> 00:21:43,640 Speaker 1: to drink. For some naturalists, this added up to conclusive 335 00:21:43,680 --> 00:21:47,679 Speaker 1: evidence that the platypus lactated, and only mammals lactate, so 336 00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:52,480 Speaker 1: platypuses were definitely mammals, and at least for some, that 337 00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:56,320 Speaker 1: was also enough to answer the question of platypuses laid eggs, 338 00:21:56,359 --> 00:21:59,919 Speaker 1: because mammals do not lay eggs, so if platypuses were mammals, 339 00:22:00,520 --> 00:22:05,560 Speaker 1: they did not lay eggs. But others, including Etienne Jeffrey, 340 00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:09,080 Speaker 1: concluded that Michael and mad had to be mistaken. Maybe 341 00:22:09,119 --> 00:22:12,680 Speaker 1: those glands were producing some kind of skin lubricant rather 342 00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:16,119 Speaker 1: than milk. This is kind of the same logic, only 343 00:22:16,240 --> 00:22:20,280 Speaker 1: in reverse. Jeffrey had concluded that platypuses lay eggs, and 344 00:22:20,320 --> 00:22:22,639 Speaker 1: that meant that they simply could not produce milk. It 345 00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:27,919 Speaker 1: was impossible your if then statements are all messy. This 346 00:22:28,160 --> 00:22:31,879 Speaker 1: led to a lot of division and dispute among naturalists, 347 00:22:31,960 --> 00:22:35,200 Speaker 1: as various men who had published work on platypuses tried 348 00:22:35,240 --> 00:22:39,000 Speaker 1: to defend their reputations in the face of other seemingly 349 00:22:39,080 --> 00:22:43,320 Speaker 1: contradictory work, and of course most of this was ignoring 350 00:22:43,359 --> 00:22:46,760 Speaker 1: the observations of Aboriginal people and at this point some 351 00:22:46,800 --> 00:22:53,359 Speaker 1: European colonists who reported the platypuses definitely laid eggs. To 352 00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:57,080 Speaker 1: be clear, this testimony was not always consistent. There were 353 00:22:57,200 --> 00:23:01,480 Speaker 1: language and cultural barriers at work, among other things. But overall, 354 00:23:01,520 --> 00:23:06,159 Speaker 1: besides just wanting physical evidences proof, the scientific community was 355 00:23:06,280 --> 00:23:11,880 Speaker 1: generally dismissive of anything Aboriginal people reported. Charles Darwin stopped 356 00:23:11,880 --> 00:23:14,359 Speaker 1: in Sydney in eighteen thirty six at the end of 357 00:23:14,440 --> 00:23:18,359 Speaker 1: his voyage aboard the Beagle. While in Australia, he saw 358 00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:21,880 Speaker 1: platypuses for himself, including one that had been shot by 359 00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:25,440 Speaker 1: a member of his expedition, and in the years that followed, 360 00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:28,440 Speaker 1: Platypuss came up in his letters to his colleagues as 361 00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:32,720 Speaker 1: he was sort of thinking through his ideas on natural selection. 362 00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:37,359 Speaker 1: Darwin later used the platypus as an example in on 363 00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:40,120 Speaker 1: the Origin of Species in eighteen fifty nine, in a 364 00:23:40,119 --> 00:23:45,920 Speaker 1: discussion of how animals traits influenced how people classified them, 365 00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:49,479 Speaker 1: even if those traits were not necessarily the most important ones. 366 00:23:50,359 --> 00:23:53,480 Speaker 1: Quote if the orna thorncas had been covered with feathers 367 00:23:53,520 --> 00:23:57,919 Speaker 1: instead of hair, this external and trifling character would I 368 00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:01,720 Speaker 1: think have been considered by naturalists as important an aid 369 00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:05,240 Speaker 1: in determining the degree of affinity of this strange creature 370 00:24:05,280 --> 00:24:09,200 Speaker 1: to birds and reptiles, as an approach instructure in anyone 371 00:24:09,680 --> 00:24:13,480 Speaker 1: internal and important organ The work of Darwin and his 372 00:24:13,560 --> 00:24:17,639 Speaker 1: successors would eventually put the platypus in context based on 373 00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:20,640 Speaker 1: how it evolved over time and how that was related 374 00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:24,240 Speaker 1: to the evolution of other animals. But in eighteen thirty six, 375 00:24:24,359 --> 00:24:27,040 Speaker 1: when he was in Sydney, there were still far more 376 00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:30,400 Speaker 1: questions than answers and we'll talk more about that after 377 00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:42,400 Speaker 1: we pause for a sponsor break. As we said earlier, 378 00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:47,360 Speaker 1: some nineteenth century researchers saw lactation and egg laying as 379 00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:52,200 Speaker 1: mutually exclusive animals simply could not do both of those things. 380 00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:56,639 Speaker 1: But for others establishing that the platypus did lactate, that 381 00:24:56,680 --> 00:24:59,760 Speaker 1: didn't rule out egg laying. Instead, it made this an 382 00:24:59,760 --> 00:25:04,359 Speaker 1: e been more important question to definitively answer. But eyewitness 383 00:25:04,520 --> 00:25:08,679 Speaker 1: testimony of platypuses with eggs was not enough, because it's like, 384 00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:11,879 Speaker 1: what if those were some other animals eggs and the 385 00:25:11,920 --> 00:25:14,040 Speaker 1: platypus just happened to be near them. I mean, that's 386 00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:19,199 Speaker 1: a sure that could happen. Sometimes people found egg fragments 387 00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:24,680 Speaker 1: in platypus burrows, but that also wasn't conclusive, because theoretically 388 00:25:24,800 --> 00:25:27,680 Speaker 1: a platypus might eat eggs, those could be the remnants 389 00:25:27,720 --> 00:25:31,760 Speaker 1: of its food. So researchers wanted to find a pregnant 390 00:25:31,760 --> 00:25:35,399 Speaker 1: platypus or one in the process of laying an egg, 391 00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:38,840 Speaker 1: or an egg that contained what was clearly a developing 392 00:25:38,880 --> 00:25:44,320 Speaker 1: platypus embryo. Researchers had already killed a lot of platypuses 393 00:25:44,359 --> 00:25:47,120 Speaker 1: for research in the first decades of the nineteenth century, 394 00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:51,399 Speaker 1: but attempts to meet these specific criteria led them to 395 00:25:51,520 --> 00:25:55,480 Speaker 1: kill a lot more Yeah, and it was more specifically 396 00:25:55,560 --> 00:26:00,760 Speaker 1: destructive because they were specifically looking for females. We mentioned 397 00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:05,080 Speaker 1: earlier that cleverly made East Asian taxid army specimens had 398 00:26:05,160 --> 00:26:09,400 Speaker 1: led to some skepticism about whether platypus specimens were genuine, 399 00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:12,840 Speaker 1: and when it came to this question of whether platypuses 400 00:26:12,920 --> 00:26:18,160 Speaker 1: lay eggs, incorrect eggs specimens had the same effect. Both 401 00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:23,760 Speaker 1: Aboriginal people and colonists submitted samples that were purportedly platypus eggs, 402 00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:26,560 Speaker 1: but they turned out to belong to completely different animals, 403 00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:31,280 Speaker 1: including tortoises, lizards, and snakes. It's really not clear whether 404 00:26:31,320 --> 00:26:33,960 Speaker 1: any of this was intentional or just a case of 405 00:26:34,040 --> 00:26:38,840 Speaker 1: mistaken identity. Also, the question wasn't just do platypuses lay 406 00:26:38,880 --> 00:26:41,639 Speaker 1: eggs or do they give birth to live young. Some 407 00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:45,480 Speaker 1: animals are ovo viviparous, meaning they produce eggs, but the 408 00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:49,359 Speaker 1: eggs develop inside the mother's body, either hatching inside the 409 00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:53,960 Speaker 1: body or immediately after the egg is laid. So did 410 00:26:54,040 --> 00:26:56,560 Speaker 1: the platypus give birth to live young that had been 411 00:26:56,600 --> 00:27:00,199 Speaker 1: nourished through a placenta like a mammal, or did the 412 00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:04,400 Speaker 1: platypus produce eggs? And if eggs were involved, did they 413 00:27:04,440 --> 00:27:09,480 Speaker 1: develop and hatch inside or outside the body? Past podcast 414 00:27:09,560 --> 00:27:12,840 Speaker 1: subject Jules Verreaux is going to be an upcoming Saturday 415 00:27:12,840 --> 00:27:17,120 Speaker 1: Classic spent fifteen months in Tasmania, much of that time 416 00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:21,439 Speaker 1: studying platypuses. Based on this research, he concluded that the 417 00:27:21,480 --> 00:27:27,320 Speaker 1: platypus was over viviparous in He also wrote, quote the 418 00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:30,520 Speaker 1: order the rincus as an animal bizarre of structure and 419 00:27:30,600 --> 00:27:34,080 Speaker 1: offers numerous analogies with a host of different species and 420 00:27:34,160 --> 00:27:37,680 Speaker 1: even classes. And its external form it resembles in some 421 00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:41,640 Speaker 1: degree the mole as to its body, the beaver as 422 00:27:41,680 --> 00:27:44,320 Speaker 1: to its tail, and the duck as to its beak. 423 00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:48,320 Speaker 1: Its internal structure, more astonishing, still resembles that of certain 424 00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:52,000 Speaker 1: reptiles and appears to form a link between mammals and lizards. 425 00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:56,040 Speaker 1: Richard Owen directed George Bennett of the Australian Museum to 426 00:27:56,200 --> 00:28:01,080 Speaker 1: hunt for female platypuses either pregnant or with eggs. Bennett 427 00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:05,600 Speaker 1: had previously dissected female platypuses and found eggs in their uteruses, 428 00:28:06,080 --> 00:28:08,920 Speaker 1: but none of those eggs contained any embryos, so they 429 00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:11,960 Speaker 1: didn't offer any insight into whether the young might hatch 430 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:16,280 Speaker 1: from eggs or be born alive. But Bennett was concerned 431 00:28:16,280 --> 00:28:19,240 Speaker 1: about this idea, fearing for the future of the species 432 00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:23,600 Speaker 1: if researchers indiscriminately killed females to try to answer this 433 00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:27,760 Speaker 1: egg question. Bennett was also concerned about the killing of 434 00:28:27,800 --> 00:28:32,920 Speaker 1: Australian animals more generally. In eighteen sixty he wrote Gatherings 435 00:28:32,920 --> 00:28:37,760 Speaker 1: of a Naturalist in Australasia being observations principally on the 436 00:28:37,800 --> 00:28:41,400 Speaker 1: animal and vegetable productions of New South Wales, New Zealand 437 00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:44,640 Speaker 1: and some of the austral Islands, And in the preface 438 00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:47,719 Speaker 1: to this he said, quote, unless the hand of man 439 00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:51,280 Speaker 1: be stayed from their destruction, the ornitho ryncus and the echidna, 440 00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:55,560 Speaker 1: the emu and the megapodius, like the dodo moa, and 441 00:28:55,760 --> 00:28:59,400 Speaker 1: no tortoise will shortly exist only in the pages of 442 00:28:59,440 --> 00:29:03,320 Speaker 1: the natural list. The effort to find platypus eggs or 443 00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:08,719 Speaker 1: pregnant platypus is continued for decades without clear success. Then 444 00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:12,800 Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty four, two miners brought a female platypus 445 00:29:12,840 --> 00:29:17,480 Speaker 1: to gold receiver George Rumby. Rumby reported that she laid 446 00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:20,680 Speaker 1: two eggs while closed up in a gin create, but 447 00:29:20,800 --> 00:29:23,600 Speaker 1: he wasn't sure that this was normal for the platypus. 448 00:29:24,120 --> 00:29:26,840 Speaker 1: He thought that the fear involved with being shut up 449 00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:29,520 Speaker 1: in that gin create may have caused her to essentially 450 00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:34,760 Speaker 1: miscarry her eggs. In eighteen eighty two, British biologist and 451 00:29:34,920 --> 00:29:39,960 Speaker 1: embryologist Francis Maitland Balfour, known as Frank, suggested that William 452 00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:43,400 Speaker 1: Hay Calledwell traveled to Australia to study the egg question. 453 00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:47,719 Speaker 1: Caldwell had graduated from Cambridge in eighteen eighty and had 454 00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:52,560 Speaker 1: been teaching comparative anatomy. Not long after Balfour made this suggestion, 455 00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:56,160 Speaker 1: he died while mountain climbing in the Swiss Alps. A 456 00:29:56,320 --> 00:30:00,800 Speaker 1: Traveling Studentship was named in his honor, and Caldwell became 457 00:30:00,880 --> 00:30:05,160 Speaker 1: its first recipient. Caldwell used the money and prestige that 458 00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:07,800 Speaker 1: came with the studentship, along with the backing of the 459 00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:11,600 Speaker 1: Royal Society, to travel to Australia and to study several 460 00:30:11,640 --> 00:30:15,880 Speaker 1: of its animals, including platypus, is kidneas and lungfish. On 461 00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:20,479 Speaker 1: August nine four, after a four months search assisted by 462 00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:25,800 Speaker 1: Aboriginal people, Calledwell shot a female platypus. There was an 463 00:30:25,800 --> 00:30:30,520 Speaker 1: egg nearby, one that was presumably hers. He also found 464 00:30:30,560 --> 00:30:32,680 Speaker 1: an egg in the mouth of her uterus, which he 465 00:30:32,760 --> 00:30:36,080 Speaker 1: described as being at a stage equal to a thirty 466 00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:40,760 Speaker 1: six hour chick. Caldwell reported his findings through a telegram 467 00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:47,240 Speaker 1: that read quote monotreums oviparous ovum merro blastic. Merro Blastic 468 00:30:47,320 --> 00:30:49,920 Speaker 1: is a term used to describe an egg's cleavage after 469 00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:53,320 Speaker 1: it's been fertilized, So in lay terms, this essentially said 470 00:30:53,760 --> 00:30:56,920 Speaker 1: monotreams lay eggs, and their eggs contain lots of yolk. 471 00:30:57,800 --> 00:31:01,040 Speaker 1: Caldwell's message was passed along to a professor he knew 472 00:31:01,080 --> 00:31:04,960 Speaker 1: at Sydney University, and from there to the British Association 473 00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:08,400 Speaker 1: for the Advancement of Science meeting that was convening in Montreal, 474 00:31:09,120 --> 00:31:13,280 Speaker 1: and then just a day after Calledwell's find, William Hawk, 475 00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:16,920 Speaker 1: who was curator of the South Australian Museum, also found 476 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:21,280 Speaker 1: an eggshell in an achidnas pouch that led to confirmation 477 00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:25,840 Speaker 1: that a kidnas also lay eggs. Pack presented his observation 478 00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:29,560 Speaker 1: to the Royal Society of South Australia and Adelaide on 479 00:31:29,680 --> 00:31:33,360 Speaker 1: the same day that Calledwell's discovery was announced at the 480 00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:36,880 Speaker 1: British Association of the Advancement of Science meeting. Both those 481 00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:42,960 Speaker 1: things happened on September two four. This finally conclusively answered 482 00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:46,520 Speaker 1: the question of whether platypuses lay eggs. Yes, they do, 483 00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:50,120 Speaker 1: and so do a kidnas. Today there are only five 484 00:31:50,200 --> 00:31:53,600 Speaker 1: species of mammal known to lay eggs, which are platypuses, 485 00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:57,440 Speaker 1: and then four different species of a kidnam. All of 486 00:31:57,480 --> 00:32:01,160 Speaker 1: them are native to the Australian continent and it surrounding islands, 487 00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:04,880 Speaker 1: and from an evolutionary standpoint, it's likely that they split 488 00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:07,920 Speaker 1: off from other mammals more than two hundred million years ago. 489 00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:11,880 Speaker 1: It was only after that point that other mammals evolved 490 00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:15,240 Speaker 1: to give birth to live young. After his discovery of 491 00:32:15,240 --> 00:32:19,080 Speaker 1: platypus eggs, Caldwell went on to do some incredibly destructive 492 00:32:19,120 --> 00:32:22,840 Speaker 1: research into a kidness. He employed a huge team of 493 00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:27,120 Speaker 1: Aboriginal people who captured and killed and estimated twelve hundred 494 00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:31,480 Speaker 1: to four hundred kidnap between July and August of five. 495 00:32:32,240 --> 00:32:35,200 Speaker 1: Caldwell's writing suggests that at least some of these were 496 00:32:35,240 --> 00:32:38,640 Speaker 1: being used for food, but he was definitely encouraging this 497 00:32:38,760 --> 00:32:41,840 Speaker 1: by paying them half a crown for each female specimen 498 00:32:41,840 --> 00:32:45,240 Speaker 1: that they brought to him. He also wrote about this 499 00:32:45,320 --> 00:32:49,240 Speaker 1: aboriginal crew in a really disparaging way, and he exploited 500 00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:52,440 Speaker 1: them by raising the prices on the flour, sugar and 501 00:32:52,560 --> 00:32:54,800 Speaker 1: tea that he sold to them based on how much 502 00:32:54,840 --> 00:32:57,600 Speaker 1: he had paid them for a kidneys specimens. So if 503 00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:00,560 Speaker 1: you brought him more specimens, he would will sell you 504 00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:03,240 Speaker 1: the same amount of tea or sugar or whatever, but 505 00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:05,520 Speaker 1: at a higher price based on how much he had 506 00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:09,640 Speaker 1: paid for those animals. What a gym uh. This research 507 00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:12,480 Speaker 1: into the nature of the platypus had taken ninety five 508 00:33:12,600 --> 00:33:16,200 Speaker 1: years and an enormous amount of effort. In the words 509 00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:20,080 Speaker 1: of George Bennett, quote of all the Australian mammalia, none 510 00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:23,760 Speaker 1: has excited so much attention as the platypus or water mole, 511 00:33:24,160 --> 00:33:27,840 Speaker 1: both from its peculiar form and the great desire events 512 00:33:27,880 --> 00:33:31,640 Speaker 1: to ascertain the habits and economy of so singular a creature. 513 00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:35,200 Speaker 1: He went on to say, quote, perhaps no animal in 514 00:33:35,240 --> 00:33:38,760 Speaker 1: its first introduction into Europe, ever, gave rise to greater 515 00:33:38,960 --> 00:33:44,760 Speaker 1: doubts as to its classification or excited deeper interests among naturalists, 516 00:33:45,040 --> 00:33:48,960 Speaker 1: and interest fully maintained to the present day respecting its 517 00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:52,880 Speaker 1: habits and economy than this enigmatical creature, which, from its 518 00:33:52,960 --> 00:33:56,960 Speaker 1: external appearance as well as internal anatomy, may correctly be 519 00:33:57,040 --> 00:34:01,480 Speaker 1: described as forming a connecting link between quadruped the bird 520 00:34:01,560 --> 00:34:05,200 Speaker 1: and the reptile. Bennett wrote that in eighteen sixty, but 521 00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:08,279 Speaker 1: that part about quote an interest fully maintained to the 522 00:34:08,320 --> 00:34:12,080 Speaker 1: present day is still true. There's still a ton of 523 00:34:12,120 --> 00:34:16,040 Speaker 1: ongoing research into the platypus, including the discovery that the 524 00:34:16,040 --> 00:34:21,600 Speaker 1: platypus has biofluorescent fur that was announced in so As. 525 00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:25,319 Speaker 1: We noted a lot of platypuses were killed during this 526 00:34:25,440 --> 00:34:29,080 Speaker 1: research and also through hunting, habitat loss, and other factors 527 00:34:29,080 --> 00:34:33,000 Speaker 1: in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Eventually, though every 528 00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:37,759 Speaker 1: Australian state passed conservation laws to protect the platypus. The 529 00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:40,800 Speaker 1: last of those laws went into effect in nineteen twelve. 530 00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:45,520 Speaker 1: So today platypuses are listed as near threatened on the 531 00:34:45,560 --> 00:34:49,640 Speaker 1: International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species. 532 00:34:50,719 --> 00:34:54,160 Speaker 1: Not the most upbeat place to land an episode, no, 533 00:34:54,640 --> 00:35:00,400 Speaker 1: but I mean it's better than they're being think. I 534 00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:03,319 Speaker 1: don't know if that uh. My point being, do you 535 00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:06,560 Speaker 1: have a beat listener mail to accompany this? I do 536 00:35:07,080 --> 00:35:10,399 Speaker 1: have listener mail. I have listener mail that is about Australia. 537 00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:15,160 Speaker 1: UM something. I didn't make the connection until just now 538 00:35:15,200 --> 00:35:17,279 Speaker 1: because I had two different listener mails to go with 539 00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:19,880 Speaker 1: two different episodes, and I did not pay attention to 540 00:35:19,920 --> 00:35:22,840 Speaker 1: which I put with which. So thanks for nota for 541 00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:25,520 Speaker 1: this email that turned out to be super related to 542 00:35:25,560 --> 00:35:30,319 Speaker 1: this episode. UH this says this was written back in 543 00:35:30,400 --> 00:35:34,000 Speaker 1: August after an earlier Unearthed episode, and I flagged it 544 00:35:34,040 --> 00:35:36,799 Speaker 1: to read on the show, and then I didn't read it, 545 00:35:37,600 --> 00:35:40,920 Speaker 1: so nada said Dear Holly and Tracy, I hope this 546 00:35:40,960 --> 00:35:44,000 Speaker 1: email finds you both well during these strange and unusual times. 547 00:35:44,280 --> 00:35:47,040 Speaker 1: I've just caught up on the July Unearthed episodes, as 548 00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:49,960 Speaker 1: I usually listen to podcasts while i'm driving, but I'm 549 00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:53,160 Speaker 1: in lockdown in Melbourne, Australia and haven't really been going 550 00:35:53,200 --> 00:35:57,080 Speaker 1: many places. I came across this interesting talk about archaeological 551 00:35:57,160 --> 00:36:00,359 Speaker 1: digs taking place in Melbourne, and I thought it might 552 00:36:00,400 --> 00:36:05,960 Speaker 1: be interesting for the Edibles Impotable section of the next Unearthed. Uh. 553 00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:09,200 Speaker 1: I forgot to come back to it in time for 554 00:36:09,239 --> 00:36:12,479 Speaker 1: the next on Earth, so I'm reading it now. There's 555 00:36:12,520 --> 00:36:15,399 Speaker 1: a big infrastructure project currently on the go, and as 556 00:36:15,480 --> 00:36:18,200 Speaker 1: part of the excavations for a new train station, the 557 00:36:18,280 --> 00:36:22,440 Speaker 1: Victorian government conducted archaeological digs on the site prior to 558 00:36:22,480 --> 00:36:26,799 Speaker 1: commencing construction work. This particular site was right at the 559 00:36:26,840 --> 00:36:30,040 Speaker 1: heart of early Melbourne, including a cottage owned by the 560 00:36:30,040 --> 00:36:33,160 Speaker 1: man who founded the city, John Batman. Side note Melbourne 561 00:36:33,160 --> 00:36:36,920 Speaker 1: was almost called bat Mania after him. One of the 562 00:36:36,960 --> 00:36:39,560 Speaker 1: places they were excavating had been a general store in 563 00:36:39,560 --> 00:36:42,920 Speaker 1: the eighteen fifties, but suffered a catastrophic fire in eighteen 564 00:36:42,960 --> 00:36:45,560 Speaker 1: fifty five. The shop was destroyed and much of the 565 00:36:45,600 --> 00:36:48,439 Speaker 1: remains fell into the underground cellar, which was also full 566 00:36:48,480 --> 00:36:51,680 Speaker 1: of stock. The fire was so destructive that they pretty 567 00:36:51,760 --> 00:36:54,280 Speaker 1: much just covered over the seller and built over the top. 568 00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:58,280 Speaker 1: The excavations revealed to look at an eighteen fifties grocery store, 569 00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:01,120 Speaker 1: with everything in the cellar base sickly untouched since the 570 00:37:01,239 --> 00:37:03,960 Speaker 1: night of the fire. This allowed insight into how grocery 571 00:37:03,960 --> 00:37:07,040 Speaker 1: stores arranged their stock and also what kinds of items 572 00:37:07,040 --> 00:37:09,520 Speaker 1: they were stalking Melbourne in the eighteen fifties was a 573 00:37:09,560 --> 00:37:12,960 Speaker 1: frontier town, having only been established twenty years prior. Yet 574 00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:16,040 Speaker 1: the shop with stocking a range of foods, including relatively 575 00:37:16,080 --> 00:37:19,799 Speaker 1: exotic fruits, as well as luxury goods from England. The 576 00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:23,360 Speaker 1: dig analysis included our Chao botanical research to determine the 577 00:37:23,400 --> 00:37:26,160 Speaker 1: contents of pots and bottles, some of which still contained 578 00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:30,200 Speaker 1: the bird remains of food and drinks. There's also remains 579 00:37:30,200 --> 00:37:32,479 Speaker 1: of a cat, possibly kept in the store to catch 580 00:37:32,520 --> 00:37:35,839 Speaker 1: mice that would otherwise spoil the goods. Uh. And then 581 00:37:35,840 --> 00:37:38,640 Speaker 1: there was a link to the talk about all of this. 582 00:37:39,640 --> 00:37:41,239 Speaker 1: Thank you for all the hard work that goes into 583 00:37:41,280 --> 00:37:44,359 Speaker 1: researching and writing the shows. They're always interesting, even when 584 00:37:44,400 --> 00:37:47,120 Speaker 1: it isn't a topic with which I'm familiar, which is 585 00:37:47,160 --> 00:37:49,279 Speaker 1: lots ha ha. Take here and stay safe or not 586 00:37:49,400 --> 00:37:51,600 Speaker 1: to thank you so much for this email. I'm sorry 587 00:37:51,640 --> 00:37:55,560 Speaker 1: that I flagged it for follow up, and then I 588 00:37:55,719 --> 00:37:59,239 Speaker 1: didn't look at my follow up flags for a very 589 00:37:59,280 --> 00:38:02,920 Speaker 1: long time. Uh, and then I thought I need to 590 00:38:03,040 --> 00:38:04,799 Speaker 1: I need to make sure I haven't missed anything which 591 00:38:04,800 --> 00:38:07,440 Speaker 1: I had. So thank you so much for this note 592 00:38:07,520 --> 00:38:10,080 Speaker 1: and for telling us about these spines. If you would 593 00:38:10,080 --> 00:38:12,240 Speaker 1: like to send us a note, we're at History podcast 594 00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:14,359 Speaker 1: that I heart radio dot com and we're all over 595 00:38:14,440 --> 00:38:17,200 Speaker 1: social media at Missed in History. That's where you'll find 596 00:38:17,200 --> 00:38:20,480 Speaker 1: our Facebook and Twitter, and Pinterest in Instagram, and you 597 00:38:20,480 --> 00:38:22,840 Speaker 1: can subscribe to our show on the I heart radio 598 00:38:22,920 --> 00:38:25,359 Speaker 1: app and wherever else you like to take your podcasts. 599 00:38:30,719 --> 00:38:32,880 Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of 600 00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:36,120 Speaker 1: I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, 601 00:38:36,320 --> 00:38:39,320 Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 602 00:38:39,440 --> 00:38:40,880 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.