June 2, 2026 • 25 mins
They’re nature’s biggest weirdo: adorable egg-laying mammals that can inflict some serious pain. Today Will and Mango drop nine facts about the platypus, including the actual correct pluralization (hint: it’s not what you think it is) and the time scientists were convinced its existence was a prank. Which, fair!
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Guess what Will? What's that? Mano?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
So I just found out that we have a platypus
working at PTG.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
So what do you mean by that.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
We have a real live platypus working on the show,
or maybe an honorary platypus, because I am talking about
our longtime friend and writer Gabe.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Guess that's right. I see where you're going.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
His alma mater is this small liberal arts school in
Annapolis called Saint John's College. And you know, the school
doesn't have this official mascot, but it claims the platypus
as an unofficial one, and they've actually put the little
guys on branded T shirts, water bottles. Gate says when
he attended, they even sold plush ones in the campus bookstore.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
So I'm curious that, Like, why did a school in
Maryland choose the platypus for a mascot?
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, so, of course we all know that the platypus
is a total weirdo, right, Like, it's got a bill
like a dog, a tail like a beaver, it's clawed,
it has webbed feet like an otter. It is obviously
a mix of everything, and Saint John's is I don't
think as strange as that, but it is an outlier
compared to like most of the other schools, so all
its classes are discussion based. There are no majors or miners.
(01:35):
Every student follows in the same curriculum, and instead of prepping
students for a single career track, the goal is to
give them this really well rounded education. But also there's
this long running joke on campus about the lack of majors,
and they say Saint John's students are like platypuses because
neither one knows what it wants to be when it
grows up.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I kind of love that actually, and at least they
have a sense of humor about it.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah, but Gabe told me there's actually been a big
push in recent years for Saint John's to adopt another
weirdo animal that's equally beloved. I think the Axel Lottel.
Apparently the school reads them as part of a science program,
so people think they make more sense as a mascot.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
To be fair, most things do make more sense than
the platypus. I keep thinking of that old Robin Williams
bit where he says that Platypus is our proof that
God has a sense of humor, because otherwise, why is
there an egg laying beaver with a ducks bill walking around?
Speaker 1 (02:28):
I mean, that is the million dollar question. And while
the jury is still out on that one, we are
going to dive into the strange anatomy, the shocking truth
about their lineage, and a whole lot more so. There
is a lot of strange ground to cover. Let's get
into it.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and is always I'm joined by my good
friend mangeshat Ticketter and over there in the booth showing
off his collection of Patty the Platypus beanie babies. That's
our Palin producer Dylan Fagan. Now, I know he's pulled
these out every once in a while, but never for
us an episode. Sometimes he just brings them, you know,
I count twenty six patties so far, but he is
(03:26):
just steadily pulling them out of a duffel bag. I
did not know he had that many. There is no
end in sight, and I'm curious where did he get
all these?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I think it's because the bottom fell out of the
beanie baby market and he was able to scoop them
up for like practically nothing. But I do know he
keeps them around and offers to trade them like money,
as if it's bitcoined or something.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Right right right by low sell high is something I
think a lot of platypus investors tend to say, right.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, I think so I have a feeling Dan's gonna
cash in, because that is a lot of platypuses.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Well, technically you're only half write about that, because one
thing I learned this week is that the plural form
of the word platypus isn't technically platypuses. And before you ask, no,
it isn't platypi either.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Is it one of those words where like the singular
and the plural are the same, like sheep or reindeer.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
It's actually not that either. I actually don't think you
would ever guess this on your own, so I will
just tell you so. Scientifically speaking, the proper pluralization of
platypus is platypitis. But there's even more confusion there because
a lot of people pronounce it platypuds. So the first
version is technically correct, though. The word platypus is a
latinization of the ancient Greek platypidea, which means flat foot,
(04:41):
and because the word was borrowed into Latin, it doesn't
get the standard Latin ending that you'd expect from a
word ending in us. For example, fungus and stimulus are Latin,
so they're plurals take an I ending fungi stimuli, but
platypus uses the Greek pluralization, making it platipities.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
God, is there anything a platypus does that's normal?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Like, you're not.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
I really thought this was going to be a debate
between like platypusses and platopi.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Well, to be fair, platypuses is the Anglicized form, so
it's considered good English or good enough. It's just really
plati pi. That's flat out wrong in any language.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Now.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Another thing to keep in mind is that the platypus
is mostly a solitary creature, so you're not likely to
come across more than one anyway, but if you did,
you'd have the rare chance to use the semi official
collective name for the species, which is a puddle, so
you could brag to all your friends that you got
to see a puddle of platipities. Isn't that amazing?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
I thought we were sticking with platypuses.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
No, I'm going to go back. Let's let's yeah, let's
let's let's each pick one and we'll just go with it.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
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NordVPN can't influence the outcome of sporting events. I do
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Speaker 2 (07:44):
All right, that sounds great, but back to plativitys.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yes, let's do it. So. You mentioned that it's rare
to encounter multiple platypuses, and I have to say that
might actually be a good thing, because they are not
as harmless as they look. At first glance across between
a sey aquatic mammal and a duck billed bird doesn't
seem that threatening, but when you look a little closer,
you'll find they also share reptilian qualities. Not only do
(08:08):
platypuses reproduced by laying small, leathery eggs like a snake,
the males of the species are also born with a sharp,
venomous stinger on the heels of their back feet. Now,
venomous mammals are few and far between, with the only
other examples being a few species of shrews. There's also
a tiny primate called the slow loris and the vampire bat,
(08:29):
and in each of those cases, the animals mostly use
their venom for hunting to incapacitate their prey, but male
platypuses use its toxic weapon to fend off other suitors
during mating season. Now, like you said, platypuses mostly keep
to themselves and spend their time hunting for insect larvae
and shrimp along river bottoms, because, of course they do.
(08:50):
Hunting for freshwater prawns on a river bottom is adorable,
but that changes in late winter when the male's attention
turns to finding a mate. This is fueled by a
rush of testoster. They start fighting the rivals the female's affections,
and when they do, they wrap their legs around the
opponent and jab them with the sharp hollow spurs on
their heels.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
And when they do that, they're what they're injecting each
other with venom.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
It is kind of like platypus UFC. And somewhere during
the course of the animal's evolution, a sweatland called the
crural gland was repurposed for venom production. This gland swells
with about a teaspoon worth of venom during mating season,
which is more than enough to paralyze the limbs of
arrival platypus. Luckily, the effects are only temporary. And the
(09:35):
losing males eventually make full recoveries, though it's usually at
the cost of their chance of mating that year. Now.
I wasn't joking about being cautious though, because, like, even
though they seem so cute and cuddly, the venom is
extremely painful to humans. No one's ever died from it,
but there are reports of people being attacked by love
sick platypuses, and according to the study from the National
(09:56):
Library of Medicine, platypus venom has been known to induce
the fall effects in humans quote swelling, nausea, cold, sweats,
and lymph notes swelling, as well as a long lasting
and excruciating pain that cannot be relieved with conventional painkillers,
including morphine. Like, oh my goodness, morphine does nothing to
reduce the pain, which is insane to me.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
I mean, that's terrifying. So no matter how adorable they look,
do resist the urge to pet a platypus, or at
least the male ones.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Right, right, But it is worth noting that they only
produce this venom during meeting season. One springtime arrives, the
male's crural glands go dormant for another year and all
the platypusses go back to more or less being harmless. Still,
I would watch out for those heel spurs.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
That's good advice. All right. Well, you told us about
some of the surprising overlap between the platypus and reptiles.
So for my next fact, I want to go to
their relation to birds. Now, the most obvious link is
that distinctive duck like bill, which not only gives the
animal a unique look among mammals, it also grants kind
of a sick sense. Really, some birds, including parrots, ducks, penguins,
(11:04):
even albatross, they have this network of touch sensitive pits.
Now it's called a bill tip organ, and it's nestled
inside their beaks. Now, this organ allows them to better
handle objects and sense movement around them, and this is
especially useful when hunting for prey. And it turns out
that the platypus has a very similar setup there. Now,
(11:24):
their bills contain about forty thousand electroreceptor skin cells, which
help them detect the natural electric fields generated by muscle
contractions and living creatures. So this gives the platypus a
huge advantage when it's searching for a meal and muddy
rivers and streams because it can locate even the tiniest
of prey. In fact, a platypus bill is so sensitive
(11:46):
it doesn't need to rely on other senses at all.
It can actually hunt with its eyes, ears, and nose
all closed, you know, just to show off.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
I guess that isn't talked about enough.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Just what show offs, right, there's such show offs. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
It just doesn't know that. Like, as silly as that
bill looks like, it actually serves as really cool purpose.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
It really does, and I don't think most people know that.
And there's actually another unusual connection between the platypus and
birds that was just recently discovered. So researchers at Ghent
University in Belgium found that the animal's melanosomes, which are
these small pigment filled structures inside their hair cells, are
completely hollow, just like a bird's. That trait was thought
(12:26):
to be unique to bird feathers because in other mammals
these structures are solid, but platypus hairs turn out to
be totally empty inside, just totally empty. I don't mean emotionally,
I just mean like physically empty. That just got really sad.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
So why would its hairs be hollowed like bird feathers.
That makes no sense to me.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
They don't really know why this is the case. I mean,
the current theory is that it might have something to
do with their aquatic lifestyle, like maybe the hollowness helps
with insulation in the cold water, or I don't know,
maybe they make the platypus more buoyant. But that raises
the question of why these hollow structures haven't been found
in other semi aquatic mammals like seals or odds. So
(13:07):
for now, it's just another of the many mysteries surrounding
nature's most notorious odd ball.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
I think that was a good time to mention that
all these different traits aren't actually some big coincidence. Over
the last twenty years, scientists have decoded nearly the entire
genome sequence of the duck billed platypus, and what they
found is that it really does share DNA with mammals, birds,
and reptiles, which is incredible to me. Like, at some
point in the species history it could have gone in
(13:35):
any of those directions, but in the end, the platypus
landed in the mammal camp and the deciding factors were
a few overtly mammalian traits, right, like the warm blooded body,
dense fur and hair, the ability to produce milk vertsion. However,
on those last two points, the platypus is still a
standout amongst its mammal siblings. So, for example, researchers recently
(13:57):
learned that platypus fur glows blue and green under ultrabolic lies.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Of course it does.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
It might be this way to reduce visibility to prejor's.
That kind of biofluorescence is rarely in the mammal class,
of course, but there are a few other species that
have this, including the flying squirrel and are palled apossum.
But as strange as glowing fur is, the way the
platypus produces milk is even more unique. So, unlike all
other mammals except for Echidna, platypuses don't have nipples. Instead,
(14:29):
females release milk through mammari bland ducts on their abdomen.
The baby's nurse by sucking the liquid off the fur
or from between the folds and the mother platypus's skin.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
You know, it gets to the point where I think
people listening are just gonna think we're making this stuff up,
because I mean, the males secrete venom from their feet,
the female sweat milk, their fur glows. But here's the thing,
believe it or not, these little guys get even weirder.
So we do have to take a quick break. But
when we come back, we're going to tell you a
couple more major body parts that platypus is, as well
(15:01):
as the reason why everyone outside of Australia thought the
animal was a hoax until the twentieth century. Don't go anywhere.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Welcome back to Part Time Genius. If you're enjoying this episode,
please share it with a friend and leave us a
nice rating interview. It is super easy, it helps us
out and we also love it, so thank you. Okay, Well,
before the break, you hinted that platypus anatomy has some
other notable emissions besides nipples. So what else is the
platypus missing?
Speaker 2 (15:41):
All right, Well, here's a big one. Stomachs. They don't
have stomachs. So while most vertebrates have an acid producing
sac between their esophagus and intestines, these are of course
there to help with digestion. A platypus gullet is connected
directly to its intestines, so once they swallow their food,
their bodies immediately begin absorbing nutrients and converting the waste
(16:02):
into feces.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
So how exactly do they digest things if they don't
have stomachs? Are they just like chewing their food really?
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Well, you might think so, but here's the next one.
Platypuses don't have teeth either. It just keeps getting weirder
and weirder. So they've developed a clever workaround though. Whenever
a platypus scoops up worms and shellfish and whatever else
from the river bottom, they pick up a bunch of
coarse gravel too, So the platypus crams all of this
into pouches and its cheeks, and when it returns to
(16:31):
the surface, it uses the bits of the gravel as
makeshift teeth to mash up food before swallowing. And while
they do swallow some rocks, mostly they consume soft parts
of the food and then spit out the remaining rocks
and things like the exoskeleton of whatever they've just eaten.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
That is so gross and fascinating and also explains why
I've never seen a platypus smiling for the camera, right.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
It's right, very self conscious.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Yeah, But why would a platypus evolve to not have
a stomach like that part I still don't quite get.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
I guess the theory is that animals that don't have
stomachs tend to eat a lot of shellfish, and those
shells are rich in calcium carbonate, which functions as a
natural and acid. So the thinking is, why bother with
an organ developed to produce acid when your diet just
neutralizes it, you know, pretty much at every meal.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Well, one thing I didn't realize was just how small
the platypus is, Like, you know, you think it has
that like heft, but platypus aren't actually that big, like
in adult weighs only about two to five pounds, and
their eggs are insanely small, between four and fourteen millimeters,
about the size of a pencil eraser. The platypus gestation
(17:42):
period lasts about twenty days, and after the eggs are laid,
they hatch after just ten days of incubation. So because
of that super fast timeline, platypus babies, which are of
course called puggles because that is here are incredibly underdeveloped.
A typical puggle is the size of a lima bean
and is totally dependent on his mother for the first
(18:03):
three or four months, and then at that point, after
all that pasty sweat milk, hope puggles will be strong
enough to leave their borrow and learn how to swim.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
You know, it's still baffling to me that these things
hatch from eggs, like they're the only mammals that do that, right,
other than the echidna.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah, there are four species of Echidna and the platypus,
and so those five actually represent the entire monotrem family,
which is a group of egg laying mammals that diverged
from their live birth cousins about one hundred and sixty
six million years ago.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
There is not a single normal thing about these guys,
and that's probably why the whole world thought the platypus
was fake when the word first spread about them outside
of Australia. At least. In fact, the first taxidermid platypus
was sent back to England from Australia in the late
seventeen hundreds. The scientists who examined it at the British Museum,
Doctor George Shaw thought that the specimen was a phony,
(18:54):
and what became the first scientific description of the platypus,
published in seventeen ninety nine. Shaw admitted to being puzzled
by the creature. He wrote, quote, it is impossible not
to entertain some doubts as to the genuine nature of
the animal, and to surmise that there might have been
practiced some arts of deception in its structure, some deceptive
preparation by artificial means.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
So he thought the platypus was a prank.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
He definitely was suspicious. I mean, he suspected that someone
had sown a duck's beak onto the body of a
rodent of some kind. But after searching the animal's dried skin,
he couldn't find any sign of stitches. He was forced
to conceive that the specimen was genuine, and it was
actually doctor Shaw who gave the animal its first scientific name,
Platypus an atteus, meaning flat foot and duck.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Like it is funny that the guy who coined the
name didn't even think it was a real animal.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah, but he was hardly alone in this. So Shaw's
skepticism was shared by zoologists all over the world. For
the next one hundred years. It wasn't until the turn
of the twentieth century that the truth of the platypus's
existence began to break through, and that was thanks to
the efforts the Australian naturalists Harry Burrell. Now, at the time,
platypuses were plentiful in the wild, and they lived just
(20:06):
as they do now in the wetlands along Australia's East coast,
but none of the animals had managed to survive in
captivity until Burrell created a handy device. It was called
the Platypussory, a portable artificial nursery designed to mimic the
cozy shoreline burrows where the animal lay their eggs and
nurse their young. Now, thanks to Burrell's ingenuity, a platypus
(20:28):
was exhibited for the first time in Australia at the
More Park Zoological Gardens in nineteen ten. This breakthrough paved
the way for the platypuses to be exhibited in other
parts of the world, gradually convincing skeptics that the species
was not a hoax.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
It reminds me a little of how people used to
think giraffes were mythical creatures. When they were first observed,
and they were called camel leopards, right, well, an idea
of like, oh it was just a mix of species.
But speaking of international exhibits, did you know that the
first place a live clot was ever seen outside of
its native Australia was right here in New York at
(21:04):
the Bronx Zoo.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
I had no idea. That must have been a great
get for them at the time.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yeah, So once people acknowledged that the animals were real,
there was this huge race to exhibit them. But in
the end the Bronx Zoo won the bragging rights thanks
to a deal it made with an Indian American wildlife
trader named Ellis Stanley Joseph. There was an assist from
the platypus whisper Harry Burrell, who you just mentioned, But
thanks to that Joseph secured five male platypuses and brought
(21:30):
them on a boat to America. Unfortunately, the voyage proved
really difficult and by the time the ship arrived in
the summer of nineteen twenty two, only a single platypus
had survived. On July fifteenth, the unnamed platypus was exhibited
for the first time at a small official gathering.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
At the Zoo.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
The zoo's director at the time, doctor Hornaday, was thrilled
to meet the platypus in person, and, as he told
the press, quote, the most wonderful of all living mammals
has been carried alive from the insular confines of it's
far too distant native land and introduced abroad through a
combination of favorable circumstances. It has been the good fortune
of New York to give hospitality to the first platypus
(22:09):
that ever left Australia and landed on a foreign shore.
No matter what evil fate may hereafter overtake the platypus,
nothing can rid ofs of the fact that New York
has looked upon a living platypus and found it mighty interesting.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Mighty interesting. I feel like that sells it kind of short,
don't you think totally? And what was that bit about
evil fate overtaking it? That's kind of ominous.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Yeah, I think Corned it was hedging a little because
he knew how hard it was to keep a platypus alive.
Especially sadly, he was right because the first platypus who
never got named reached the US and only survived about
fifty days at the zoo. After that, another living platypus
wouldn't be seen in the US for another twenty five years,
and that's when the bronx Ziou got their second round
(22:55):
of platypuses. This time it was a parent named Penelope
and Cecil, and in the years since, only a handful
of platypuses have been allowed to leave Australia. Today, they're
about three hundred thousand or so adults that supposedly exists
in the wild, and anyone caught capturing or killing a
platypus bases up to several hundred thousand dollars in fines.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I mean that seems like a really good thing because
it took us so long to confirm they exist, it
would definitely be a shame to let them slip away.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Now, agreed, And uh, that's where we're going to close
this episode. But for bringing in his retirement fund slash
Beanie Baby collection, I think Dylan has to take home
today's award.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Completely agree.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
But before we go, remember to follow us on Instagram
and Blue Sky. We're at part time genius and if
you have a question or idea for the show. Give
us a call it three two four oh five five
nine two five, or drop us a line at high
Geniuses at gmail dot com. That's Hi Geniuses at gmail
dot com. We love hearing from you. Will. I don't
know if I told you this, but we got to
(23:55):
know from someone on our Instagram, but uh that they
travel Totenstein because they were inspired by are no way.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
I'm glad it didn't turn out to be fake like
the Platypus. It's really there. Turns out, I hope.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
They could not find the false teeth factories that we
talked about, but they did enjoy the trip.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
You gotta go back, you got a little harder.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Well. Today's episode was written by our favorite Platypus, the
wonderful Gabe Lucier. And of course we'll be back next
week with another new episode. But in the meantime, from Will, Dylan,
Gabe Berry, and myself, thank you so much for listening.
(24:44):
Part Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
It is hosted by my good pal Will Pearson, who
I've known for almost three decades now. That is insane
to me. I'm the outa co host Mangeshatikular aka Mango
Are is Mary Phillips Sandy. She's actually a super producer.
I'm going to fix that in post. Our writer is
(25:06):
Gabe Lucier, who I've also known for like a decade
at this point, maybe more. Dylan Fagan is in the booth.
He is always dressed up, always cheering us on, and
always ready to hit record and then mix the show
after he does a great job. I also want to
shout out the executive producers from iHeart my good Pals
Katrina and Norvel and Ali Perry. We have social media
(25:29):
support from Calypso Rallis. If you like our videos, that
is all Calypso's handiwork for more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or tune in wherever
you listen to your favorite shows. That's it from us
here at Part Time Genius. Thank you so much for listening.
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Guess what Will? What's that? Mano?
Speaker 1 (00:26):
So I just found out that we have a platypus
working at PTG.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
So what do you mean by that.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
We have a real live platypus working on the show,
or maybe an honorary platypus, because I am talking about
our longtime friend and writer Gabe.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Guess that's right. I see where you're going.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
His alma mater is this small liberal arts school in
Annapolis called Saint John's College. And you know, the school
doesn't have this official mascot, but it claims the platypus
as an unofficial one, and they've actually put the little
guys on branded T shirts, water bottles. Gate says when
he attended, they even sold plush ones in the campus bookstore.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
So I'm curious that, Like, why did a school in
Maryland choose the platypus for a mascot?
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, so, of course we all know that the platypus
is a total weirdo, right, Like, it's got a bill
like a dog, a tail like a beaver, it's clawed,
it has webbed feet like an otter. It is obviously
a mix of everything, and Saint John's is I don't
think as strange as that, but it is an outlier
compared to like most of the other schools, so all
its classes are discussion based. There are no majors or miners.
(01:35):
Every student follows in the same curriculum, and instead of prepping
students for a single career track, the goal is to
give them this really well rounded education. But also there's
this long running joke on campus about the lack of majors,
and they say Saint John's students are like platypuses because
neither one knows what it wants to be when it
grows up.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I kind of love that actually, and at least they
have a sense of humor about it.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah, but Gabe told me there's actually been a big
push in recent years for Saint John's to adopt another
weirdo animal that's equally beloved. I think the Axel Lottel.
Apparently the school reads them as part of a science program,
so people think they make more sense as a mascot.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
To be fair, most things do make more sense than
the platypus. I keep thinking of that old Robin Williams
bit where he says that Platypus is our proof that
God has a sense of humor, because otherwise, why is
there an egg laying beaver with a ducks bill walking around?
Speaker 1 (02:28):
I mean, that is the million dollar question. And while
the jury is still out on that one, we are
going to dive into the strange anatomy, the shocking truth
about their lineage, and a whole lot more so. There
is a lot of strange ground to cover. Let's get
into it.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Hey, their podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and is always I'm joined by my good
friend mangeshat Ticketter and over there in the booth showing
off his collection of Patty the Platypus beanie babies. That's
our Palin producer Dylan Fagan. Now, I know he's pulled
these out every once in a while, but never for
us an episode. Sometimes he just brings them, you know,
I count twenty six patties so far, but he is
(03:26):
just steadily pulling them out of a duffel bag. I
did not know he had that many. There is no
end in sight, and I'm curious where did he get
all these?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I think it's because the bottom fell out of the
beanie baby market and he was able to scoop them
up for like practically nothing. But I do know he
keeps them around and offers to trade them like money,
as if it's bitcoined or something.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Right right right by low sell high is something I
think a lot of platypus investors tend to say, right.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, I think so I have a feeling Dan's gonna
cash in, because that is a lot of platypuses.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Well, technically you're only half write about that, because one
thing I learned this week is that the plural form
of the word platypus isn't technically platypuses. And before you ask, no,
it isn't platypi either.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Is it one of those words where like the singular
and the plural are the same, like sheep or reindeer.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
It's actually not that either. I actually don't think you
would ever guess this on your own, so I will
just tell you so. Scientifically speaking, the proper pluralization of
platypus is platypitis. But there's even more confusion there because
a lot of people pronounce it platypuds. So the first
version is technically correct, though. The word platypus is a
latinization of the ancient Greek platypidea, which means flat foot,
(04:41):
and because the word was borrowed into Latin, it doesn't
get the standard Latin ending that you'd expect from a
word ending in us. For example, fungus and stimulus are Latin,
so they're plurals take an I ending fungi stimuli, but
platypus uses the Greek pluralization, making it platipities.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
God, is there anything a platypus does that's normal?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Like, you're not.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
I really thought this was going to be a debate
between like platypusses and platopi.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Well, to be fair, platypuses is the Anglicized form, so
it's considered good English or good enough. It's just really
plati pi. That's flat out wrong in any language.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Now.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Another thing to keep in mind is that the platypus
is mostly a solitary creature, so you're not likely to
come across more than one anyway, but if you did,
you'd have the rare chance to use the semi official
collective name for the species, which is a puddle, so
you could brag to all your friends that you got
to see a puddle of platipities. Isn't that amazing?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
I thought we were sticking with platypuses.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
No, I'm going to go back. Let's let's yeah, let's
let's let's each pick one and we'll just go with it.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
All that sounds fun. Speaking of fun, I want to
take a moment to shout out this episode sponsor a
company that allows us to keep telling very weird stories
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Speaker 1 (06:09):
No, I do not think they figured out how to
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it makes it all really easy. You just change your
location and you are no longer GEO blocked. Now, will
(06:32):
I know you do a lot of domestic travels. So
here's the question, have you ever used the public Wi
Fi in an airport or a cafe?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
I mean, sure, who hasn't.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
At this point, I think that means that you need
to download NordVPN asap, because using public Wi Fi can
actually expose your data to hackers, and NordVPN gives you
total protection. It is almost like wearing an invisibility cloak online.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I mean I've always wanted an invisibility cloak. So this
is sounding pretty good.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Yeah, well, this is gonna be the closest you're gonna get.
And you can use one NordVPN across ten different devices,
so your work phone, your personal phone, your laptop, tablet,
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(07:19):
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Speaker 2 (07:23):
That sounds like a pretty good deal. So is there
a catch here?
Speaker 1 (07:25):
No, In fact, NordVPN has a thirty day money back guarantee,
So go to NordVPN dot com slash ptg and then
you can watch the Blue Devils play from an airport
in Finland if you want it's pretty great.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
I mean, as long as they're not losing, I'm game
for this.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
NordVPN can't influence the outcome of sporting events. I do
feel like we should make that clear.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
All right, that sounds great, but back to plativitys.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Yes, let's do it. So. You mentioned that it's rare
to encounter multiple platypuses, and I have to say that
might actually be a good thing, because they are not
as harmless as they look. At first glance across between
a sey aquatic mammal and a duck billed bird doesn't
seem that threatening, but when you look a little closer,
you'll find they also share reptilian qualities. Not only do
(08:08):
platypuses reproduced by laying small, leathery eggs like a snake,
the males of the species are also born with a sharp,
venomous stinger on the heels of their back feet. Now,
venomous mammals are few and far between, with the only
other examples being a few species of shrews. There's also
a tiny primate called the slow loris and the vampire bat,
(08:29):
and in each of those cases, the animals mostly use
their venom for hunting to incapacitate their prey, but male
platypuses use its toxic weapon to fend off other suitors
during mating season. Now, like you said, platypuses mostly keep
to themselves and spend their time hunting for insect larvae
and shrimp along river bottoms, because, of course they do.
(08:50):
Hunting for freshwater prawns on a river bottom is adorable,
but that changes in late winter when the male's attention
turns to finding a mate. This is fueled by a
rush of testoster. They start fighting the rivals the female's affections,
and when they do, they wrap their legs around the
opponent and jab them with the sharp hollow spurs on
their heels.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
And when they do that, they're what they're injecting each
other with venom.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
It is kind of like platypus UFC. And somewhere during
the course of the animal's evolution, a sweatland called the
crural gland was repurposed for venom production. This gland swells
with about a teaspoon worth of venom during mating season,
which is more than enough to paralyze the limbs of
arrival platypus. Luckily, the effects are only temporary. And the
(09:35):
losing males eventually make full recoveries, though it's usually at
the cost of their chance of mating that year. Now.
I wasn't joking about being cautious though, because, like, even
though they seem so cute and cuddly, the venom is
extremely painful to humans. No one's ever died from it,
but there are reports of people being attacked by love
sick platypuses, and according to the study from the National
(09:56):
Library of Medicine, platypus venom has been known to induce
the fall effects in humans quote swelling, nausea, cold, sweats,
and lymph notes swelling, as well as a long lasting
and excruciating pain that cannot be relieved with conventional painkillers,
including morphine. Like, oh my goodness, morphine does nothing to
reduce the pain, which is insane to me.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
I mean, that's terrifying. So no matter how adorable they look,
do resist the urge to pet a platypus, or at
least the male ones.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Right, right, But it is worth noting that they only
produce this venom during meeting season. One springtime arrives, the
male's crural glands go dormant for another year and all
the platypusses go back to more or less being harmless. Still,
I would watch out for those heel spurs.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
That's good advice. All right. Well, you told us about
some of the surprising overlap between the platypus and reptiles.
So for my next fact, I want to go to
their relation to birds. Now, the most obvious link is
that distinctive duck like bill, which not only gives the
animal a unique look among mammals, it also grants kind
of a sick sense. Really, some birds, including parrots, ducks, penguins,
(11:04):
even albatross, they have this network of touch sensitive pits.
Now it's called a bill tip organ, and it's nestled
inside their beaks. Now, this organ allows them to better
handle objects and sense movement around them, and this is
especially useful when hunting for prey. And it turns out
that the platypus has a very similar setup there. Now,
(11:24):
their bills contain about forty thousand electroreceptor skin cells, which
help them detect the natural electric fields generated by muscle
contractions and living creatures. So this gives the platypus a
huge advantage when it's searching for a meal and muddy
rivers and streams because it can locate even the tiniest
of prey. In fact, a platypus bill is so sensitive
(11:46):
it doesn't need to rely on other senses at all.
It can actually hunt with its eyes, ears, and nose
all closed, you know, just to show off.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
I guess that isn't talked about enough.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Just what show offs, right, there's such show offs. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
It just doesn't know that. Like, as silly as that
bill looks like, it actually serves as really cool purpose.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
It really does, and I don't think most people know that.
And there's actually another unusual connection between the platypus and
birds that was just recently discovered. So researchers at Ghent
University in Belgium found that the animal's melanosomes, which are
these small pigment filled structures inside their hair cells, are
completely hollow, just like a bird's. That trait was thought
(12:26):
to be unique to bird feathers because in other mammals
these structures are solid, but platypus hairs turn out to
be totally empty inside, just totally empty. I don't mean emotionally,
I just mean like physically empty. That just got really sad.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
So why would its hairs be hollowed like bird feathers.
That makes no sense to me.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
They don't really know why this is the case. I mean,
the current theory is that it might have something to
do with their aquatic lifestyle, like maybe the hollowness helps
with insulation in the cold water, or I don't know,
maybe they make the platypus more buoyant. But that raises
the question of why these hollow structures haven't been found
in other semi aquatic mammals like seals or odds. So
(13:07):
for now, it's just another of the many mysteries surrounding
nature's most notorious odd ball.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
I think that was a good time to mention that
all these different traits aren't actually some big coincidence. Over
the last twenty years, scientists have decoded nearly the entire
genome sequence of the duck billed platypus, and what they
found is that it really does share DNA with mammals, birds,
and reptiles, which is incredible to me. Like, at some
point in the species history it could have gone in
(13:35):
any of those directions, but in the end, the platypus
landed in the mammal camp and the deciding factors were
a few overtly mammalian traits, right, like the warm blooded body,
dense fur and hair, the ability to produce milk vertsion. However,
on those last two points, the platypus is still a
standout amongst its mammal siblings. So, for example, researchers recently
(13:57):
learned that platypus fur glows blue and green under ultrabolic lies.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Of course it does.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
It might be this way to reduce visibility to prejor's.
That kind of biofluorescence is rarely in the mammal class,
of course, but there are a few other species that
have this, including the flying squirrel and are palled apossum.
But as strange as glowing fur is, the way the
platypus produces milk is even more unique. So, unlike all
other mammals except for Echidna, platypuses don't have nipples. Instead,
(14:29):
females release milk through mammari bland ducts on their abdomen.
The baby's nurse by sucking the liquid off the fur
or from between the folds and the mother platypus's skin.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
You know, it gets to the point where I think
people listening are just gonna think we're making this stuff up,
because I mean, the males secrete venom from their feet,
the female sweat milk, their fur glows. But here's the thing,
believe it or not, these little guys get even weirder.
So we do have to take a quick break. But
when we come back, we're going to tell you a
couple more major body parts that platypus is, as well
(15:01):
as the reason why everyone outside of Australia thought the
animal was a hoax until the twentieth century. Don't go anywhere.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Welcome back to Part Time Genius. If you're enjoying this episode,
please share it with a friend and leave us a
nice rating interview. It is super easy, it helps us
out and we also love it, so thank you. Okay, Well,
before the break, you hinted that platypus anatomy has some
other notable emissions besides nipples. So what else is the
platypus missing?
Speaker 2 (15:41):
All right, Well, here's a big one. Stomachs. They don't
have stomachs. So while most vertebrates have an acid producing
sac between their esophagus and intestines, these are of course
there to help with digestion. A platypus gullet is connected
directly to its intestines, so once they swallow their food,
their bodies immediately begin absorbing nutrients and converting the waste
(16:02):
into feces.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
So how exactly do they digest things if they don't
have stomachs? Are they just like chewing their food really?
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Well, you might think so, but here's the next one.
Platypuses don't have teeth either. It just keeps getting weirder
and weirder. So they've developed a clever workaround though. Whenever
a platypus scoops up worms and shellfish and whatever else
from the river bottom, they pick up a bunch of
coarse gravel too, So the platypus crams all of this
into pouches and its cheeks, and when it returns to
(16:31):
the surface, it uses the bits of the gravel as
makeshift teeth to mash up food before swallowing. And while
they do swallow some rocks, mostly they consume soft parts
of the food and then spit out the remaining rocks
and things like the exoskeleton of whatever they've just eaten.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
That is so gross and fascinating and also explains why
I've never seen a platypus smiling for the camera, right.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
It's right, very self conscious.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Yeah, But why would a platypus evolve to not have
a stomach like that part I still don't quite get.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
I guess the theory is that animals that don't have
stomachs tend to eat a lot of shellfish, and those
shells are rich in calcium carbonate, which functions as a
natural and acid. So the thinking is, why bother with
an organ developed to produce acid when your diet just
neutralizes it, you know, pretty much at every meal.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Well, one thing I didn't realize was just how small
the platypus is, Like, you know, you think it has
that like heft, but platypus aren't actually that big, like
in adult weighs only about two to five pounds, and
their eggs are insanely small, between four and fourteen millimeters,
about the size of a pencil eraser. The platypus gestation
(17:42):
period lasts about twenty days, and after the eggs are laid,
they hatch after just ten days of incubation. So because
of that super fast timeline, platypus babies, which are of
course called puggles because that is here are incredibly underdeveloped.
A typical puggle is the size of a lima bean
and is totally dependent on his mother for the first
(18:03):
three or four months, and then at that point, after
all that pasty sweat milk, hope puggles will be strong
enough to leave their borrow and learn how to swim.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
You know, it's still baffling to me that these things
hatch from eggs, like they're the only mammals that do that, right,
other than the echidna.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah, there are four species of Echidna and the platypus,
and so those five actually represent the entire monotrem family,
which is a group of egg laying mammals that diverged
from their live birth cousins about one hundred and sixty
six million years ago.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
There is not a single normal thing about these guys,
and that's probably why the whole world thought the platypus
was fake when the word first spread about them outside
of Australia. At least. In fact, the first taxidermid platypus
was sent back to England from Australia in the late
seventeen hundreds. The scientists who examined it at the British Museum,
Doctor George Shaw thought that the specimen was a phony,
(18:54):
and what became the first scientific description of the platypus,
published in seventeen ninety nine. Shaw admitted to being puzzled
by the creature. He wrote, quote, it is impossible not
to entertain some doubts as to the genuine nature of
the animal, and to surmise that there might have been
practiced some arts of deception in its structure, some deceptive
preparation by artificial means.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
So he thought the platypus was a prank.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
He definitely was suspicious. I mean, he suspected that someone
had sown a duck's beak onto the body of a
rodent of some kind. But after searching the animal's dried skin,
he couldn't find any sign of stitches. He was forced
to conceive that the specimen was genuine, and it was
actually doctor Shaw who gave the animal its first scientific name,
Platypus an atteus, meaning flat foot and duck.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Like it is funny that the guy who coined the
name didn't even think it was a real animal.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
Yeah, but he was hardly alone in this. So Shaw's
skepticism was shared by zoologists all over the world. For
the next one hundred years. It wasn't until the turn
of the twentieth century that the truth of the platypus's
existence began to break through, and that was thanks to
the efforts the Australian naturalists Harry Burrell. Now, at the time,
platypuses were plentiful in the wild, and they lived just
(20:06):
as they do now in the wetlands along Australia's East coast,
but none of the animals had managed to survive in
captivity until Burrell created a handy device. It was called
the Platypussory, a portable artificial nursery designed to mimic the
cozy shoreline burrows where the animal lay their eggs and
nurse their young. Now, thanks to Burrell's ingenuity, a platypus
(20:28):
was exhibited for the first time in Australia at the
More Park Zoological Gardens in nineteen ten. This breakthrough paved
the way for the platypuses to be exhibited in other
parts of the world, gradually convincing skeptics that the species
was not a hoax.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
It reminds me a little of how people used to
think giraffes were mythical creatures. When they were first observed,
and they were called camel leopards, right, well, an idea
of like, oh it was just a mix of species.
But speaking of international exhibits, did you know that the
first place a live clot was ever seen outside of
its native Australia was right here in New York at
(21:04):
the Bronx Zoo.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
I had no idea. That must have been a great
get for them at the time.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Yeah, So once people acknowledged that the animals were real,
there was this huge race to exhibit them. But in
the end the Bronx Zoo won the bragging rights thanks
to a deal it made with an Indian American wildlife
trader named Ellis Stanley Joseph. There was an assist from
the platypus whisper Harry Burrell, who you just mentioned, But
thanks to that Joseph secured five male platypuses and brought
(21:30):
them on a boat to America. Unfortunately, the voyage proved
really difficult and by the time the ship arrived in
the summer of nineteen twenty two, only a single platypus
had survived. On July fifteenth, the unnamed platypus was exhibited
for the first time at a small official gathering.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
At the Zoo.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
The zoo's director at the time, doctor Hornaday, was thrilled
to meet the platypus in person, and, as he told
the press, quote, the most wonderful of all living mammals
has been carried alive from the insular confines of it's
far too distant native land and introduced abroad through a
combination of favorable circumstances. It has been the good fortune
of New York to give hospitality to the first platypus
(22:09):
that ever left Australia and landed on a foreign shore.
No matter what evil fate may hereafter overtake the platypus,
nothing can rid ofs of the fact that New York
has looked upon a living platypus and found it mighty interesting.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Mighty interesting. I feel like that sells it kind of short,
don't you think totally? And what was that bit about
evil fate overtaking it? That's kind of ominous.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
Yeah, I think Corned it was hedging a little because
he knew how hard it was to keep a platypus alive.
Especially sadly, he was right because the first platypus who
never got named reached the US and only survived about
fifty days at the zoo. After that, another living platypus
wouldn't be seen in the US for another twenty five years,
and that's when the bronx Ziou got their second round
(22:55):
of platypuses. This time it was a parent named Penelope
and Cecil, and in the years since, only a handful
of platypuses have been allowed to leave Australia. Today, they're
about three hundred thousand or so adults that supposedly exists
in the wild, and anyone caught capturing or killing a
platypus bases up to several hundred thousand dollars in fines.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
I mean that seems like a really good thing because
it took us so long to confirm they exist, it
would definitely be a shame to let them slip away.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Now, agreed, And uh, that's where we're going to close
this episode. But for bringing in his retirement fund slash
Beanie Baby collection, I think Dylan has to take home
today's award.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Completely agree.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
But before we go, remember to follow us on Instagram
and Blue Sky. We're at part time genius and if
you have a question or idea for the show. Give
us a call it three two four oh five five
nine two five, or drop us a line at high
Geniuses at gmail dot com. That's Hi Geniuses at gmail
dot com. We love hearing from you. Will. I don't
know if I told you this, but we got to
(23:55):
know from someone on our Instagram, but uh that they
travel Totenstein because they were inspired by are no way.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
I'm glad it didn't turn out to be fake like
the Platypus. It's really there. Turns out, I hope.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
They could not find the false teeth factories that we
talked about, but they did enjoy the trip.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
You gotta go back, you got a little harder.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Well. Today's episode was written by our favorite Platypus, the
wonderful Gabe Lucier. And of course we'll be back next
week with another new episode. But in the meantime, from Will, Dylan,
Gabe Berry, and myself, thank you so much for listening.
(24:44):
Part Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.
It is hosted by my good pal Will Pearson, who
I've known for almost three decades now. That is insane
to me. I'm the outa co host Mangeshatikular aka Mango
Are is Mary Phillips Sandy. She's actually a super producer.
I'm going to fix that in post. Our writer is
(25:06):
Gabe Lucier, who I've also known for like a decade
at this point, maybe more. Dylan Fagan is in the booth.
He is always dressed up, always cheering us on, and
always ready to hit record and then mix the show
after he does a great job. I also want to
shout out the executive producers from iHeart my good Pals
Katrina and Norvel and Ali Perry. We have social media
(25:29):
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