Wonders of Creation
Duck Billed Platapus
A fun history lesson on the Duck Billed Platypus
In 1798, an artist’s sketch and pelt were sent from Australia to Great Britain describing an exceptional new find. The description was so extraordinary that, when the specimen reached Britain, it was immediately dismissed as a fraud. One scientist actually used scissors to attempt to locate the stitches attaching the supposed duck’s bill to the furry mammalian body. This tells us a lot about how science can respond to new ideas.
It is just unique, The platypus sports fur like a mammal, paddles its duck feet like a bird and lays eggs in the manner of a reptile.
The bill is extraordinary as it is a well-designed sensory organ. Not a nose, but a highly sensitive electrolocation sensor, detecting miniscule electrical impulses generated by its food source of small crustaceans and worms.
No other mammal has a sensor so highly developed.
Then there are the webbed feet, similar to those found on otters. Unlike an otter, however, the webbing is far more pronounced on the front feet of the platypus, which it uses like paddles for swimming. While in the water, the back feet are tucked into its body and hardly used at all.
A mammal that lays eggs. On first inspection the eggs appear reptilian, but internally are structured more like those of a bird. However, unlike the process in both birds and reptiles, platypus embryos spend a much longer time in the mother. For instance, chickens lay eggs roughly 24 hours after fertilization, while a platypus waits 28 days. The spiny anteater is another mammal.
Evolutionary Quandary
The platypus poses some interesting problems for evolutionary scientists. Here is a creature that appears to be right in the middle of a supposed evolutionary transition, yet fossils dated to millions of years ago look almost identical to the modern animal.
If the platypus is a transitional specimen, why did it seemingly stop evolving? Why has it remained virtually unchanged for its entire existence?
Even the minor changes are disappointing to scientists, as they could more aptly be considered de-evolution.
For instance, the fossilized adult platypus had functioning teeth. Yet modern platypuses lose their teeth at an early age, leaving only a horned plate with which to grind and mash their food to a pulp, prior to swallowing.
Hardly advancement at all!
Though it spends the majority of its time in water, the platypus never evolved an ability to hold its breath for very long, typically no more than 30 seconds. How is it that an animal living primarily in the water for “millions” of years still cannot hold its breath for more than half a minute?
Over time, the platypus would have “decided” that webbed feet were needed, and evolved a version unlike that of any other creature. Then, instead of its eyes, nose and ears adapting to work underwater, it evolved a device that looks like a duck’s bill, but instead is the most advanced electrolocation system found on any mammal.