Platypus

High school biology is not an episode I'm anxious to relive, but Ann Moyal does a good job in this little book of keeping matters from getting too complex. What she wasn't able to do, unfortunately, was keep the middle of the book from dragging somewhat. After several chapters relating scientists' struggles and competing theories on the ovi/vivi question -- and related matters like nipples, sex organs, and the like -- I was more than ready to skip to the end in hopes Holmes or Poirot or someone would step forward and reveal the solution to the puzzle.

Things got really interesting again in the final three chapters, where Moyal introduces us to a self-taught biologist known as 'The Platypus Man' (not to be confused with Richard Jeni, who starred in a TV show by that name), to Winston, a platypus who traveled to England to help fight World War Two, and -- most importantly -- to the latest developments in platypus studies. I picked up this book in order to find out more about the platypus, not because taxonomy or the history of natural science are big interests of mine, and so I found these final chapters the most entertaining and rewarding in the book.

In 1839, the Tasmanian Society of Natural History adopted the platypus as its emblem, and added the motto 'Quocunque aspicias hic paradoxus erit' -- From wherever you look at it, this will be a paradox. Ann Moyal's book shows how men have sorted out the paradox, and lets us benefit from centuries of effort to know this reclusive, fascinating, and mysterious little creature a little better.

When I went to Australia, the platypus was on my most-hoped-to-see list. Fortunately, there was a nice habitat in the Sydney zoo that helped me to learn more about them. The platypus uses burrows as its land home, but spends a lot of time in the water. The platypus can consume half its weight a day in live food. To locate that much food, it relies on an advanced electrolocation method involving its duck-like bill. This method is more effective than the sonar-like methods used by other animals.

Well, what is a platypus? First, you notice the duck-like bill. Perhaps a bird? Second, you notice the fur. Perhaps a mammal? Third, you see the webbed feet. Back to bird? Fourth, close examination shows that the platypus has mammary glands. Mammal? Fifth, the platypus lays eggs that are like those of reptiles. Reptile?

These days, the view is that the platypus is a mammal that lays eggs, along with the echidna. But both animals confounded 19th century naturalists before Darwin when Divine Creation was the dominant theory of evolution. Elaborate classification schemes had been developed that traced everything into one neat family or another. The platypus did not fit.

The first specimens were sent back pickled in alcohol to England and later to France, where dissection sparked a continuing debate about whether or not the platypus had mammary glands and whether or not their young could suckle. How the young were born was a complete mystery.

The mystery could have been solved much sooner, but Europeans chose to ignore what Aborigines and Australians told them about the platypus. So European naturalists came and slaughtered thousands, looking for pregnant and ovulating female platypuses.

Attempts to transport platypuses live failed for a long time, as did attempts to maintain them in captivity.

Eventually, observations by European naturalists established the truth. By the time that Darwin wrote The Origin of Species, the platypus had become one of his greatest examples of natural selection. The platypus had kept some reptile-like features while having evolved into a mammal. Little did he know that the bill's sensors would become the strongest evidence for his argument.

The book is well illustrated with many drawings and a few photographs that provide helpful perspective on this little-known creature.

Ms. Moyal does a fine job of giving us a Down Under view of all this. She combines solid science, explained simply, with a subtle wit about the false speculations and plodding methods of pompous, well-respected scientists. You will enjoy what she has to say.

After you finish this fine book, I suggest that you think about where the evidence around you contradicts what you have been told. For example, it is argued that education is very essential for children. What are the things that children learn to do outside of school (like walk, talk, ride a bicycle, develop a moral sense, and sometimes to read) compared to what they learn in school (like sometimes to read, how to use maps, calculate geometry, and do art projects)? What are the implications for how children and adults could learn more?

Look for better examples and answers!

The Platypus story differs considerably from that of the Coelacanth, however, in that there were so many people who contributed to its story (the Coelacanth tale involves just a handful of people). As the book therefore covers a longer period, and consequently many more personalities are involved, the book tends to concentrate in a fairly detailed way on the specifics of what was discovered at each step rather than tell the tale of the people who made those discoveries.

If you are genuinely interested in learning of the history of the Platypus per se then I would say this book is good. If you are more interested in just reading a book about a significant scientific discovery (without particularly caring what it is) and the people who were involved then there are more interesting books than this.

She sets a wonderful stage for the drama of the platypus, and gives many examples to explain how national rivalry and individual competition both helped and hindered the search for the truth of this curious creature. As she presents well, the search for science in the 19th century was dominated by scientists of great egos, and by international conflict, including the napoleonic wars. Ms. Moyal examines many individuals in the search, showing some characters in great depth and others only briefly.

This is certainly a baffling creature, and an interesting book. However, though the subject and the mystery both provoke curiousity, one would most likely find the book boring if he or she did not have some special interest in the topic. It is, on the whole, a well written, informative read.

The platypus was such an oddity that at first no one believed it could actually exist. With an animal that was an amphibian quadruped with webbed feet, fur, and the beak of a duck, it is not surprising that some suspected a hoax. Central to classifying the platypus were the two questions concerning reproduction: did it produce live young, and did it produce milk for them? Richard Owen, the most influential naturalist before Darwin and who had an encyclopedic knowledge of anatomy of many species, was able to confirm the stories that the reclusive platypus did suckle its young, but the question of birth proved more troublesome. The obvious way to settle such a question would be to find a platypus home and see, but the retiring and removed nature of the creature prevented this for decades. Instead of suspending judgement on the question until this could be done, naturalists formed ranks on different sides, and argued over the issue in what seems now a useless and puzzling manner. Owen, originally a friend of Darwin and then a fierce opponent of evolution, tended to examine evidence to show his own view that the platypus had live birth, but it was not until 1884 that a naturalist shot a platypus which had laid an egg and had another coming down the cloaca. The long controversy was ended, and the aging Owen must have heard the news, but unfortunately his views on the discovery are unknown.

Moyal's book is beautifully illustrated, with pictures of the platypus as envisioned by naturalists through the centuries. It is full of interesting facts about one of the most peculiar creatures on the Earth, one which has yielded surprising findings even after the big controversies were settled. For instance, although there is no placenta to connect the young with the mother platypus, the egg within the uterus is nourished by absorption into its shell, a process which egg-laying birds and reptiles do not share. Another surprising finding, and this only in the last couple of decades, is that the distinctive bill of the platypus (and it isn't hard like a duck's, but soft and flexible) contains a battery of electroreceptors which are so sensitive they can detect the tiny muscle discharges of the shrimp and worms on which the platypus feeds. The platypus, as revealed in this well-written and admiring volume, is not a primitive throwback as researchers from the nineteenth century believed, but a fully evolved creature of surprising beauties and complexities.