Primary source: ScienceDaily
I have hair and feet like an otter, I lay eggs and produce venom like a snake, I have a tail like a beaver and a beak like a duck?! Of course I am a platypus!
The platypus has always been seen as an oddity and doesn’t appear to fit anywhere properly in the evolutionary tree. When it was discovered, scientists believed it was an animal created as a prank and sewn together! Recently however, the platypus genome was unravelled with surprising implications.
Researchers of the genome compared it with genomes of the human, mouse and dog representing class mammalia, the opossum representing infraclass marsupialia and the chicken from clade reptilia. It was discovered that 82% of the genetic makeup of the platypus is found within these animals.
Some interesting discoveries:
- Genetic sequences encoding venom production in male platypi are duplications of genes from ancestral reptiles.
- It was initially anticipated that there would be very few odour receptor genes, such as those found in rodents and dogs. However the genetic codes for electrosensory receptors in the platypus seem to be a simple expansion of vomeronasal odour receptor type I.
There is vast overlap between mammalian and reptilian classes, leading the researchers to conclude that the platypus was no evolutionary accident, but was instead the earliest offshoot of the mammalian lineage. Maybe the platypus has a distinct place in the evolutionary tree after all and will go on to help us understand more of mammalian biology.
Tara Morris #41461565
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