June 2, 2011 • 23 mins
With a duck's head and a beaver's body, the duck-billed platypus is often the butt of jokes. Yet this oddity helps us understand how creatures evolve. Join Robert and Julie as they investigate the unique anatomy of the platypus.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your mind.
My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas and
with us today is a platypus. Well, I mean not
really physically in the studio because that would be kind
of terrifying and weird a little cute, but he'd probably
(00:24):
be submerged in a little bit of water marshy area. Yeah,
I might be stung with a vile poison. Were various
things could happen, and that's why they're not allowed in
the office. But the platypus anymore in spirit, Yes, yeah, absolutely,
it is here and it wants us to represent. In
case you're wondering why platypus, Yeah, it's sort of I
know that the Rodney danger Field of the animal Kingdom.
(00:46):
It doesn't get much respect. People kind of make fun
of it, um, and we should probably talk about why
this this, this poor guy gal doesn't get the respect
it deserves. It's interesting you say that, though, because there
was a time before all these facts who were about
to discuss came out, the platypus was really revered. For instance, Um,
William Watsworth originally wrote, I wandered lonely as a cloud
that floats on high or vales and hills, when all
(01:09):
at once I saw a crowd a host of golden platypod's.
That was the originals didn't change it to daffodils. Likewise,
William Blake platypus, platypus burning bright in the forest of
the night. What immortal hand or eye could frame thy
fearful symmetry? Then he changes a tiger because all this
stuff came out about the platypus, and people are like, whoa,
I'm gonna distance myself from that. Nicely done, Roberto, I'm
(01:30):
not hating me. First time I was like, I don't
read it on Do you not remember that? Yeah, Yeah,
happened again with Duran. Duran's hungry like the platypus. But
that's that's a different era. That's so much sexier than Wolf.
I don't know why they didn't go without. I guess
that's we're kind of underscoring a point here that that
it doesn't exactly, um take a rock star approach this
platypus when you look at it. Yeah, I mean, on
(01:51):
one level, they are kind of cute, but you know,
we're talking about a mammal, a carnivore. You've all seen
pictures of it accompanying blog posts. For this uh podcast,
we'll have a picture of a platypus for your amusement
in case you forget what they look like. Uh tend
to be about fifteen inches long, tails about fifteen inches
and the tail is looks like that of a beaver.
(02:13):
They appear to have a duck's bill and a duck's
webbed feet. They kind of have a furry otter's body,
so they look I've heard it mentioned that they look
like an animal that was built by committee. You know.
It's they look kind of like a Frankenstein creature. Yeah, yeah,
built out of spare parts. And actually, um, it is
a weird looking creature, but it also genetically is a
(02:36):
weird creature. And we'll talk about this a little bit more.
But it's also kind of exciting because it's it's uh,
it's given us a little bit more insight into evolution
and uh, perhaps how we even evolved as humans. Um.
But I do want to mention that, uh, it's it's
the proper name is duck build platypus because there is
actually a beetle that's called a platypus. So they had
(02:58):
to come and go back when they were that's crazy
because that's kind of like having to call the Ghostbusters
cartoon the real Ghostbusters because there was an older Ghostbusters
cartoon with a gorilla and yeah, I mean little did
you know in the animal world there's the whole TM issue, right? Yeah? Um.
So actually, when specimens of it were first shared in
the nineteenth century, people thought that this this creature was
(03:19):
completely fake. They thought it was like, what was the
mermaid we were talking about? The Fiji mermaid was like
a Fiji mermaid where it's like really an otter with
a duck bill. All right, Dr Frankenstein, get that thing
out of here, right, because we know the Fiji Mermaid
was was made to look was actually made out of parts. Yeah,
they took a monkey, part of the monkey, part of
the fish. So did together put it on display charged
people quarter to look at it. Yes. By the time
(03:41):
the platypus came around, they were like, you know, Burmie
one she mommy Burnie t shame on you or I
think backwards but whatever, Um, it's just so odd looking
that people just couldn't really wrap their heads around it. Um.
And actually the other reason why people couldn't wrap their
heads around it for so very long is because it's
indigenous to Australia and to you the streams and freshwater
(04:02):
areas around their rivers. So it's not like it's in
a multiple multi plaid multi platypus of places, so to speak. Um.
And it's also not something that we've been able to
breed in captivity and really look at it until recently actually,
so it's been a bit of a mystery and some
people for a long time, but they just didn't exist. Um.
(04:25):
So that's that's sort of the background that you get
on this person. And we should probably go ahead and
say that sometimes we're gonna say platypod's right for the plural.
Perhaps we'll even say platypus is I think both of
them are right here. Platypus is platypus and platyplodes platypods
I like better because it kind of sounds like platypus
is exploding. So that's gonna be my my preference here.
(04:48):
So it's it's easy to make jokes that the platypus
looks like a duck and a beaver had a baby. Yeah,
but obviously that's not the case. These guys date back
quite quite a long ways in our in the evolution
of mammals. Yeah, that's right, one hundred thousand years ago.
These these guys have been hanging out for that long.
And they were actually called mono trams. They're one of
(05:10):
only two kinds of egg laying mammals. Okay, weird, right,
mammals don't weig eggs, right, um, and the duck build
patypus this one, and then ead I believe Echtna is
a spiny anti ear, so that's the other one, okay
with ecitna, Yeah, let's go with spiny anti eah. Yeah. Yeah.
(05:31):
And it's actually thought that they've they've been successful as
a group, this tiny group, right um, in their survival
because they can take to the water to escape danger
from the land lobbing predators. So small group of egg
laying mammals here, and also huge anomaly, like it's almost
it's sort of a question mark even to call them
(05:52):
a mammal. Of course, they are classified as a mammal,
but that again is one of the reasons why they're
so odd, because genetically they draw from too, boxes of
genetic toolboxes of other species. Yeah, that's right there. They're
called the bridge animal. And this is from Scientific American.
It's an article called What's our Connection to the Platypus?
(06:12):
And again they call it the bridge animal between non
mammals and birds and reptiles. And the article points to
the platypus as a clue as to how mammals, birds
and reptiles evolved from a common ancestor three fifteen million
years ago. And this is a quote from the article.
As you look at the platypus genem effectively, what you've
got is a patchwork. Places that look a little bit
more avian, places that look a little bit reptilian, and
(06:34):
places that look a bit mam millions, says Mark bats Or,
a gen geneticist at Louisian Louisiana State University and Baton
rouge Uh. Looking at different genomes and seeing where various
processes were created gives you some insight into how things
work and why they were generated. So they mapped the
genome at these guys, and they realized that it wasn't
(06:56):
just a straightforward as being a mammal or what we
think of as a mammal and it kind of all
boils down to the old frank and beans, the old
frank and benes oh their parts. Yes, oh yeah, this
is interesting because I was in yoga last night with
my wife and uh, there was kind of a low
point when we were we're trying something new in yoga
(07:17):
and the platypus no, no platopusicition and it's really yeah,
it's really rough on the knees, the platypus um. But
I just leaned over and it's like, hey, did you
know that platypuses have cloaca? And then she got mad
at me and said that I had ruined platypus is
for forever. Well and you did this in yoga? Well,
it was it was on my mind. I've been researching
(07:38):
technology the ancients all day and platypuses and platypus seemed,
you know, more game for a quick anecdote during yoga. Yeah, well,
let's talk about why this is disturbing to your wife
and to others and to myself at times. The cloaca, right, yes,
the this is again this is Roman for sewer and
it's kind of a multi use port for genetic material
(08:01):
for p for pooh. Yeah, yeah, it's kind of it's
it's a call to one ender, I believe, because it
does everything um and for for Platypus um or potypods
like reptiles actually maintain their testicles in a body cavity,
while placental and morsupial mammals hold their testies in an
(08:23):
external scrotum. So it's odd, right because and yet they
are classified as mammals because the cloaca is typically the
that's generally the trademark of the birds, right right, And
we talked about this too in our Tyrannosaurus sex podcasts
Cloaca um and and we're trying to figure out exactly
(08:44):
how dinosaurs made it. So the clicka is is a
very interesting model here, and we won't go into that
because we've talked about it before. Then we've already made
the platypus now kind of dirty in talking about click.
Every time we say the word, we lose like three
people shut off the podcast. Yeah, they're like, stop with it,
don't please, don't say clue a cole kiss you did it,
but don't mean really, just before we move on, let
(09:05):
me just say that, I mean, technically, with humans, we
have like genetic material and and P used the same parts.
So I mean there's an alien could easily land in
the neighborhood. An alien could easily land on this planet
and say, whoa, I have like three different things, well
only one function for each one. You guys are gross
that's true, and they'd really be grossed out by the platypum.
(09:25):
It is all perspective, um, So let's talk about why
they're technically a mammal. Yes, they big one of course
with mammals, this we all know from science class. Is
the milk, right, yes, so is their platypus milk not
available at the store but available at the platypus not yet. Yeah,
memory glands actually secrete milk and collective grooves on their
abdomens and then the baby papases lap it up. But
(09:48):
they're not quite nipples though they're not nipples. And I
was actually watching the documentary that you recommended, The Left
of Mammals, which Richard at Borough rates it and he
says it uses out, which I thought, like, that's so
much better than than you know, it just gets collected
in grooves like somehow that just even if I say
(10:10):
it in my own accent, it oozes out that you
get a better idea of how this is working. I
can picture him now in boots chasing a platypus around
us swamp. Tell me about it. Yeah, that's what he
was doing, disturbing a nest, looking inside, getting excited about
the using. And another reason why their mamles is that
they're hairy, right, They've got temperature temperature control. They're warm blooded,
(10:31):
although they are nine degrees cooler and body temperature than humans.
So that's what technically makes them mammals. Um. But what
makes them reptilian We've talked about it, the egg laying,
the cloaca, and the testicles right when it when it
comes to testicles, they're they're innies rather than auties and
m venom. Yes, the males in particular, they have these
(10:55):
sharp stingers on their heels, on the heels of their
rear feet, and which they can use to deliver a
strong toxic injection to uh any kind of predator or
foe or even human if they happen to get a
little too close. Yeah. I love this about them. I
think it makes them like super assassins of the wild. Um. Yeah,
they've got those spurs on their hind legs and the
(11:18):
venom apparently is so painful that in humans at last
for a month, but be it actually um it is
resistant to morphine into other pain killers. Yeah, so, I
mean scientists are looking at that right now saying like,
what is let's try to figure this out, like, how
is there a venom that we can't block the pain
(11:39):
from that? It's just so crazy and what can we
learn from this will help us understand pain or pain
managain management? Yeah? Absolutely, yeah. Um. Oh, and there's there's
a lot more that's crazy about the platypus, which we
will get to right after this quick note. This presentation
is brought to you by Intel Sponsors of Tomorrow, and
(12:05):
we're back with the platypus. So we're just talking about
the platypus venom and how crazy that is. Yeah, how
it makes them a bit of a you know, secret
service agent. Yeah, especially when you throw in the fact
that their their bills, which are not really like duck bills. Yeah, um,
they're used. They can they can sense with it, like
they can sense muscle contractions, right. Yeah, They've got the
electro receptors in the skin of their bill, and um
(12:28):
that their bill is robbery by the way um and
in a bit pliable and um as is described in
the Life of Mammals. It's used like a metal detector
in the water. And so the platypus closes his ears, eyes,
and nose holes and then it submerges itself and eight
hundred and fifty thousand electrical and tactile receptors pick up
really minute electrical currents given off by just like the
(12:51):
smile slightest muscle contraction of a creature nearby. So just
to driving home, if your boss was a platypus, and
you were in like a meeting with your boss, like
he could even just be looking out the window and
not even not not even looking at you out of
the corner of his eyes, and you would have like
the tiniest micro expression on your face and he would
sense it through his his his platypus bill and know
(13:13):
exactly what you were thinking. Yes, he would turn around
and he would have a platypus bill and he would say,
I detected that you are not happy with that scenario,
and then just like that and then hit you with
the hind venom. Yeah, right, so I mean talking, I
mean you know, of course we're antimorphosizing this this creature.
But really, if you think about it, there's there's some
double O seven elements going on. Um. It's it's interesting
(13:35):
to how they hunt. They they end up, you know,
after they found their prey with this amazing bill, they
scoop up things like insects, larva, shellfish, worms, you know whatever. Uh,
And they scoop it up from the bottom of the
of the of the river or ponder whatever because their
bottom feeders and uh. And they scoop it up well,
(13:55):
along with gravel and mud, and they store all of
this material and cheap pouches and then when they get
back to the surface then they start chewing it down.
But they don't actually have teeth. So that's why the
gravel is important. The gravel they scoop up with it
is used to munch down the this wonderful little um.
What would you call it? What is the culinary term
(14:16):
if you had, yeah, that right right before their main course.
I don't know. Yeah, well, it just seems like some
sort of like a mash of different things. I don't know. Yeah,
I mean a cast role sounds like to me, Yeah,
kind at mud and it's all crunched up with these
with the gravel in their mouth, and they have little
plates in their mouth too, right, Like they don't actually
(14:37):
have teeth, but the plates kind of helped it. Yeah. Yeah,
it's like plates and gravel. It's it's an interesting system. Yeah,
that's very cool. It's kind of like a remind me
of the seagull, although much more complex, which brings us
to birds, right, like, why why again are they genetically
expressing jeans that come from birds? This is another thing
(14:58):
that's confounding scientis us and um. And what they have
found is that distinctly birdlike sex chromosomes. And this was
a discovery of published in Nature magazine in two thousand
and four. Um. It was assumed before that that the
sex systems um for mammals and birds evolved independently from
each other. So the conclusion from this data is that
(15:19):
it's possible that all mammals, including humans, may have a
bit of Avian genetic material in our own makeups. So
there are some biologists can take issue with this that
they say like that's its way too much extrapolating going
on here. Um. But there are some that say, it's
very interesting that you know, our idea of how we
have evolved as perhaps not as clean as we have
(15:40):
thought about it before. Sorry, I'm just thinking about cloak again.
Like I guess that means you of somebody I know.
I said, see I saw this like slight smile on
your face, and I was like, what is going through
your head? No, just thinking about you know, it's like
if if it's humans continue to to evolve, if we
allow ourselves to evolve in any way that's not shaped
(16:00):
by our own designs for ourselves, Um, could we conceivably
draw back to some of these older you know, are
you suggesting that if we wanted to, we could have
like we could create chloecas. Oh, I'm I'm pretty sure
given sufficient technology, we could reach the point where humans
could have cloaca if they wanted them, which I hope
they wouldn't. But I'm also wondering, like how much would
(16:21):
are given natural evolution? How much? I don't know. I
just I need a I need a brain a brain scrub. Now, Okay,
I can't get that out of my head. It's just
such a funny word. And yeah, yeah, yeah, I think
it's because of that I've heard. I've heard it far.
There was like some comedian who was writing about this
and very recently. It's like words that have like a
(16:42):
club and a k sound in it are are inherently funny,
like the word clown, the word kloeca, the word I
don't know, give me, give me another one. But that's
not even that's just funny for different. So that's that's
If it's a funny word, it's funny in and of itself. Yeah,
I don't know. I feel like we're at the end
of our Platypus podcast. Where are you thinking? I'm thinking
(17:06):
now that we've devolved into trying to find the cloakal
like words. Yeah, so, I mean that's a basic overview
of the of the platypus and why it is a
unique not only a unique animal and a funny looking animal,
but also an important animal and and one that's worthy
of continued study. Yeah, and it's still a mystery, right,
They still are trying to figure out why this genetic
(17:27):
material is showing up. What does it mean again in
the in the bigger context for humans in terms of
what we're made up of. Um, you know, I have
birdlike behavior. Sometimes I have to wonder if I've got
some genetic expression expressions going on there like worms. We
must have some listener mail, and we have some listener mail.
We have received quite a bit from our recent podcast
(17:50):
titled is Mathematics and Human Discovery or Human Invention? Uh,
which is cool because that was a really fun one
to put together, um and uh. And you know we
won't be able to read everything that's see, but I
wanted to just touch in a few um. Our reader
by the name of listener by the name of Jeremy
writes in and says, hey, Robert and Dewey, I was
listening to your mathematics podcast. This one particularly interested me
(18:13):
because I'm somewhat of a mathlete in high school. That's
that's awesome. I don't think either of us for mathletes anyway.
When you mentioned the Godal's first incompleteness theorem, it struck
me as a kind is kind of funny because it
reminded me of Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
I've read the six book trilogy a few times and
one quote has always stood out to me. There is
(18:33):
a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly
what the universe is for and why it is there,
it will instantly disappear and replaced be replaced by something
even more bizarrely inexplicable. There is another theory which states
that this has already happened. So Jeremy goes on to add,
I'd have to agree with Godal's theorem. We'll never fully
(18:54):
grasp everything that's out there. Think of things like this. Uh.
Some some discovered cells and plants. Eventually they discovered the
cells were made up of smaller parts like uh, mitochondria
and DNA. Later it was discovered that these smaller pieces
were made up of molecules, and the molecules were made
up of atoms. Adams had neutrons, protons, and electrons, and
now all these are made up of quarks and between
thos and so forth and so on. That's all keep
(19:17):
up the great work of the podcast. So that was quarks, neutrinos,
that's all. I love that. Well, he too. He took
us to the edge of human understanding. I know, I know,
I kind of mine cracked us and they just left
us there. Oh he's a athlete, would he expect they're
They're intense. We also heard from Leanna, and Leanna writes
(19:38):
in Hey Robert and Juliet. I wanted you to know
that I enjoyed your math podcast. I was an English
major who was a was math phobic. Now we're talking
there's more like our people when I was in high
school and college. But in recent years, I've discovered that
I'm fascinated by the ideas in higher mathematics and science.
I think it's because I discovered the patterns shown in
things like the Nazi numbers and fract Last December, our
(20:01):
office was picking out calendars for the coming year, and
I really had trouble deciding what I wanted to get.
I'm not one for having pictures of dogs or kittens
on my wall, and I've had calendars with pictures of
flowers and famous artists work for the past five years,
so I'd really excited when I ran across the calendar
showing pictures created by fractals. I get so many comments
on the beauty of the pictures. Some of them are
psychedelic and others are very soothing, but each is unique,
(20:24):
and I get a kick out of explaining to people
that the pictures are product of mathematical equations, because the
most common cons comment after that is really mathematics can
be beautiful even to a mathe phobic English major. Thanks
for the podcast. He makes science even more interesting. Well
that's high praise. I can't really ask for anything. Um
(20:46):
and then I don't think I'm actually not going to
be able to read this whole email, but I just
wanted to say thank Jim for writing in. He had
had some wonderful contents about the whole uh question of
whether math is a invention or discoveries. I'm just just
a quick excerpt from this. I oscillate between the invention
discovery camp, and I don't have a strong conviction between either,
(21:08):
but right now I'm leaning in the invention camp. To me,
mathematics has been an invention that allows us to model
many things we observed physics, chemistry, biology, et cetera. All
of these disciplines existed before mathematics, and they will surely
exist should mathematics be forgotten. There may even be other
models that represent them as well. Uh So, anyway, he
goes on from there. It was a great you know,
(21:30):
I really enjoyed reading, so thank you for sending that in.
And I also wanted to add a quick note on
the mathematics podcast. I briefly mentioned, um, the idea that
that did the angles and numbers and like an ancient
Phoenician numboard of numbers were related to what that that
numerals stood for. And uh, I kind of aired there
because that's uh that the contested idea. Uh So, don't
(21:54):
take that one to the banquet you It's just it's
just more of a I think it's more of an
observation that people have made over over the years. But
and uh, and on surface it sounds great, but when
you start looking at the data, it's like people really
disagree on whether that holds any water. Uh. But everything
else in the podcast is good to go. Cool. So
if you want to talk to us about the platypus,
(22:16):
if you have, especially, I would really love to hear
if anybody who has any actual hands on experience with
platypos out there. Yeah, I mean Australian listeners to what
does it? Does it mean something in their culture? Like
what's it like to live in a country of of platypos?
I mean, you guys, we have actually have a number
of Australian listeners and uh and you guys have amazing
(22:37):
animals and this is just one of them, so it's yeah,
where are they in the hierarchy? Yeah, yeah, we'd love
to hear about that. You can find us on Facebook
and Twitter. We are blow the Mind on both of
those things, and you can also send us an emailt
at blow the Mind at how stuff works dot com.
Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff
from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we
(22:59):
explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow.
Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff
Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your mind.
My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas and
with us today is a platypus. Well, I mean not
really physically in the studio because that would be kind
of terrifying and weird a little cute, but he'd probably
(00:24):
be submerged in a little bit of water marshy area. Yeah,
I might be stung with a vile poison. Were various
things could happen, and that's why they're not allowed in
the office. But the platypus anymore in spirit, Yes, yeah, absolutely,
it is here and it wants us to represent. In
case you're wondering why platypus, Yeah, it's sort of I
know that the Rodney danger Field of the animal Kingdom.
(00:46):
It doesn't get much respect. People kind of make fun
of it, um, and we should probably talk about why
this this, this poor guy gal doesn't get the respect
it deserves. It's interesting you say that, though, because there
was a time before all these facts who were about
to discuss came out, the platypus was really revered. For instance, Um,
William Watsworth originally wrote, I wandered lonely as a cloud
that floats on high or vales and hills, when all
(01:09):
at once I saw a crowd a host of golden platypod's.
That was the originals didn't change it to daffodils. Likewise,
William Blake platypus, platypus burning bright in the forest of
the night. What immortal hand or eye could frame thy
fearful symmetry? Then he changes a tiger because all this
stuff came out about the platypus, and people are like, whoa,
I'm gonna distance myself from that. Nicely done, Roberto, I'm
(01:30):
not hating me. First time I was like, I don't
read it on Do you not remember that? Yeah, Yeah,
happened again with Duran. Duran's hungry like the platypus. But
that's that's a different era. That's so much sexier than Wolf.
I don't know why they didn't go without. I guess
that's we're kind of underscoring a point here that that
it doesn't exactly, um take a rock star approach this
platypus when you look at it. Yeah, I mean, on
(01:51):
one level, they are kind of cute, but you know,
we're talking about a mammal, a carnivore. You've all seen
pictures of it accompanying blog posts. For this uh podcast,
we'll have a picture of a platypus for your amusement
in case you forget what they look like. Uh tend
to be about fifteen inches long, tails about fifteen inches
and the tail is looks like that of a beaver.
(02:13):
They appear to have a duck's bill and a duck's
webbed feet. They kind of have a furry otter's body,
so they look I've heard it mentioned that they look
like an animal that was built by committee. You know.
It's they look kind of like a Frankenstein creature. Yeah, yeah,
built out of spare parts. And actually, um, it is
a weird looking creature, but it also genetically is a
(02:36):
weird creature. And we'll talk about this a little bit more.
But it's also kind of exciting because it's it's uh,
it's given us a little bit more insight into evolution
and uh, perhaps how we even evolved as humans. Um.
But I do want to mention that, uh, it's it's
the proper name is duck build platypus because there is
actually a beetle that's called a platypus. So they had
(02:58):
to come and go back when they were that's crazy
because that's kind of like having to call the Ghostbusters
cartoon the real Ghostbusters because there was an older Ghostbusters
cartoon with a gorilla and yeah, I mean little did
you know in the animal world there's the whole TM issue, right? Yeah? Um.
So actually, when specimens of it were first shared in
the nineteenth century, people thought that this this creature was
(03:19):
completely fake. They thought it was like, what was the
mermaid we were talking about? The Fiji mermaid was like
a Fiji mermaid where it's like really an otter with
a duck bill. All right, Dr Frankenstein, get that thing
out of here, right, because we know the Fiji Mermaid
was was made to look was actually made out of parts. Yeah,
they took a monkey, part of the monkey, part of
the fish. So did together put it on display charged
people quarter to look at it. Yes. By the time
(03:41):
the platypus came around, they were like, you know, Burmie
one she mommy Burnie t shame on you or I
think backwards but whatever, Um, it's just so odd looking
that people just couldn't really wrap their heads around it. Um.
And actually the other reason why people couldn't wrap their
heads around it for so very long is because it's
indigenous to Australia and to you the streams and freshwater
(04:02):
areas around their rivers. So it's not like it's in
a multiple multi plaid multi platypus of places, so to speak. Um.
And it's also not something that we've been able to
breed in captivity and really look at it until recently actually,
so it's been a bit of a mystery and some
people for a long time, but they just didn't exist. Um.
(04:25):
So that's that's sort of the background that you get
on this person. And we should probably go ahead and
say that sometimes we're gonna say platypod's right for the plural.
Perhaps we'll even say platypus is I think both of
them are right here. Platypus is platypus and platyplodes platypods
I like better because it kind of sounds like platypus
is exploding. So that's gonna be my my preference here.
(04:48):
So it's it's easy to make jokes that the platypus
looks like a duck and a beaver had a baby. Yeah,
but obviously that's not the case. These guys date back
quite quite a long ways in our in the evolution
of mammals. Yeah, that's right, one hundred thousand years ago.
These these guys have been hanging out for that long.
And they were actually called mono trams. They're one of
(05:10):
only two kinds of egg laying mammals. Okay, weird, right,
mammals don't weig eggs, right, um, and the duck build
patypus this one, and then ead I believe Echtna is
a spiny anti ear, so that's the other one, okay
with ecitna, Yeah, let's go with spiny anti eah. Yeah. Yeah.
(05:31):
And it's actually thought that they've they've been successful as
a group, this tiny group, right um, in their survival
because they can take to the water to escape danger
from the land lobbing predators. So small group of egg
laying mammals here, and also huge anomaly, like it's almost
it's sort of a question mark even to call them
(05:52):
a mammal. Of course, they are classified as a mammal,
but that again is one of the reasons why they're
so odd, because genetically they draw from too, boxes of
genetic toolboxes of other species. Yeah, that's right there. They're
called the bridge animal. And this is from Scientific American.
It's an article called What's our Connection to the Platypus?
(06:12):
And again they call it the bridge animal between non
mammals and birds and reptiles. And the article points to
the platypus as a clue as to how mammals, birds
and reptiles evolved from a common ancestor three fifteen million
years ago. And this is a quote from the article.
As you look at the platypus genem effectively, what you've
got is a patchwork. Places that look a little bit
more avian, places that look a little bit reptilian, and
(06:34):
places that look a bit mam millions, says Mark bats Or,
a gen geneticist at Louisian Louisiana State University and Baton
rouge Uh. Looking at different genomes and seeing where various
processes were created gives you some insight into how things
work and why they were generated. So they mapped the
genome at these guys, and they realized that it wasn't
(06:56):
just a straightforward as being a mammal or what we
think of as a mammal and it kind of all
boils down to the old frank and beans, the old
frank and benes oh their parts. Yes, oh yeah, this
is interesting because I was in yoga last night with
my wife and uh, there was kind of a low
point when we were we're trying something new in yoga
(07:17):
and the platypus no, no platopusicition and it's really yeah,
it's really rough on the knees, the platypus um. But
I just leaned over and it's like, hey, did you
know that platypuses have cloaca? And then she got mad
at me and said that I had ruined platypus is
for forever. Well and you did this in yoga? Well,
it was it was on my mind. I've been researching
(07:38):
technology the ancients all day and platypuses and platypus seemed,
you know, more game for a quick anecdote during yoga. Yeah, well,
let's talk about why this is disturbing to your wife
and to others and to myself at times. The cloaca, right, yes,
the this is again this is Roman for sewer and
it's kind of a multi use port for genetic material
(08:01):
for p for pooh. Yeah, yeah, it's kind of it's
it's a call to one ender, I believe, because it
does everything um and for for Platypus um or potypods
like reptiles actually maintain their testicles in a body cavity,
while placental and morsupial mammals hold their testies in an
(08:23):
external scrotum. So it's odd, right because and yet they
are classified as mammals because the cloaca is typically the
that's generally the trademark of the birds, right right, And
we talked about this too in our Tyrannosaurus sex podcasts
Cloaca um and and we're trying to figure out exactly
(08:44):
how dinosaurs made it. So the clicka is is a
very interesting model here, and we won't go into that
because we've talked about it before. Then we've already made
the platypus now kind of dirty in talking about click.
Every time we say the word, we lose like three
people shut off the podcast. Yeah, they're like, stop with it,
don't please, don't say clue a cole kiss you did it,
but don't mean really, just before we move on, let
(09:05):
me just say that, I mean, technically, with humans, we
have like genetic material and and P used the same parts.
So I mean there's an alien could easily land in
the neighborhood. An alien could easily land on this planet
and say, whoa, I have like three different things, well
only one function for each one. You guys are gross
that's true, and they'd really be grossed out by the platypum.
(09:25):
It is all perspective, um, So let's talk about why
they're technically a mammal. Yes, they big one of course
with mammals, this we all know from science class. Is
the milk, right, yes, so is their platypus milk not
available at the store but available at the platypus not yet. Yeah,
memory glands actually secrete milk and collective grooves on their
abdomens and then the baby papases lap it up. But
(09:48):
they're not quite nipples though they're not nipples. And I
was actually watching the documentary that you recommended, The Left
of Mammals, which Richard at Borough rates it and he
says it uses out, which I thought, like, that's so
much better than than you know, it just gets collected
in grooves like somehow that just even if I say
(10:10):
it in my own accent, it oozes out that you
get a better idea of how this is working. I
can picture him now in boots chasing a platypus around
us swamp. Tell me about it. Yeah, that's what he
was doing, disturbing a nest, looking inside, getting excited about
the using. And another reason why their mamles is that
they're hairy, right, They've got temperature temperature control. They're warm blooded,
(10:31):
although they are nine degrees cooler and body temperature than humans.
So that's what technically makes them mammals. Um. But what
makes them reptilian We've talked about it, the egg laying,
the cloaca, and the testicles right when it when it
comes to testicles, they're they're innies rather than auties and
m venom. Yes, the males in particular, they have these
(10:55):
sharp stingers on their heels, on the heels of their
rear feet, and which they can use to deliver a
strong toxic injection to uh any kind of predator or
foe or even human if they happen to get a
little too close. Yeah. I love this about them. I
think it makes them like super assassins of the wild. Um. Yeah,
they've got those spurs on their hind legs and the
(11:18):
venom apparently is so painful that in humans at last
for a month, but be it actually um it is
resistant to morphine into other pain killers. Yeah, so, I
mean scientists are looking at that right now saying like,
what is let's try to figure this out, like, how
is there a venom that we can't block the pain
(11:39):
from that? It's just so crazy and what can we
learn from this will help us understand pain or pain
managain management? Yeah? Absolutely, yeah. Um. Oh, and there's there's
a lot more that's crazy about the platypus, which we
will get to right after this quick note. This presentation
is brought to you by Intel Sponsors of Tomorrow, and
(12:05):
we're back with the platypus. So we're just talking about
the platypus venom and how crazy that is. Yeah, how
it makes them a bit of a you know, secret
service agent. Yeah, especially when you throw in the fact
that their their bills, which are not really like duck bills. Yeah, um,
they're used. They can they can sense with it, like
they can sense muscle contractions, right. Yeah, They've got the
electro receptors in the skin of their bill, and um
(12:28):
that their bill is robbery by the way um and
in a bit pliable and um as is described in
the Life of Mammals. It's used like a metal detector
in the water. And so the platypus closes his ears, eyes,
and nose holes and then it submerges itself and eight
hundred and fifty thousand electrical and tactile receptors pick up
really minute electrical currents given off by just like the
(12:51):
smile slightest muscle contraction of a creature nearby. So just
to driving home, if your boss was a platypus, and
you were in like a meeting with your boss, like
he could even just be looking out the window and
not even not not even looking at you out of
the corner of his eyes, and you would have like
the tiniest micro expression on your face and he would
sense it through his his his platypus bill and know
(13:13):
exactly what you were thinking. Yes, he would turn around
and he would have a platypus bill and he would say,
I detected that you are not happy with that scenario,
and then just like that and then hit you with
the hind venom. Yeah, right, so I mean talking, I
mean you know, of course we're antimorphosizing this this creature.
But really, if you think about it, there's there's some
double O seven elements going on. Um. It's it's interesting
(13:35):
to how they hunt. They they end up, you know,
after they found their prey with this amazing bill, they
scoop up things like insects, larva, shellfish, worms, you know whatever. Uh,
And they scoop it up from the bottom of the
of the of the river or ponder whatever because their
bottom feeders and uh. And they scoop it up well,
(13:55):
along with gravel and mud, and they store all of
this material and cheap pouches and then when they get
back to the surface then they start chewing it down.
But they don't actually have teeth. So that's why the
gravel is important. The gravel they scoop up with it
is used to munch down the this wonderful little um.
What would you call it? What is the culinary term
(14:16):
if you had, yeah, that right right before their main course.
I don't know. Yeah, well, it just seems like some
sort of like a mash of different things. I don't know. Yeah,
I mean a cast role sounds like to me, Yeah,
kind at mud and it's all crunched up with these
with the gravel in their mouth, and they have little
plates in their mouth too, right, Like they don't actually
(14:37):
have teeth, but the plates kind of helped it. Yeah. Yeah,
it's like plates and gravel. It's it's an interesting system. Yeah,
that's very cool. It's kind of like a remind me
of the seagull, although much more complex, which brings us
to birds, right, like, why why again are they genetically
expressing jeans that come from birds? This is another thing
(14:58):
that's confounding scientis us and um. And what they have
found is that distinctly birdlike sex chromosomes. And this was
a discovery of published in Nature magazine in two thousand
and four. Um. It was assumed before that that the
sex systems um for mammals and birds evolved independently from
each other. So the conclusion from this data is that
(15:19):
it's possible that all mammals, including humans, may have a
bit of Avian genetic material in our own makeups. So
there are some biologists can take issue with this that
they say like that's its way too much extrapolating going
on here. Um. But there are some that say, it's
very interesting that you know, our idea of how we
have evolved as perhaps not as clean as we have
(15:40):
thought about it before. Sorry, I'm just thinking about cloak again.
Like I guess that means you of somebody I know.
I said, see I saw this like slight smile on
your face, and I was like, what is going through
your head? No, just thinking about you know, it's like
if if it's humans continue to to evolve, if we
allow ourselves to evolve in any way that's not shaped
(16:00):
by our own designs for ourselves, Um, could we conceivably
draw back to some of these older you know, are
you suggesting that if we wanted to, we could have
like we could create chloecas. Oh, I'm I'm pretty sure
given sufficient technology, we could reach the point where humans
could have cloaca if they wanted them, which I hope
they wouldn't. But I'm also wondering, like how much would
(16:21):
are given natural evolution? How much? I don't know. I
just I need a I need a brain a brain scrub. Now, Okay,
I can't get that out of my head. It's just
such a funny word. And yeah, yeah, yeah, I think
it's because of that I've heard. I've heard it far.
There was like some comedian who was writing about this
and very recently. It's like words that have like a
(16:42):
club and a k sound in it are are inherently funny,
like the word clown, the word kloeca, the word I
don't know, give me, give me another one. But that's
not even that's just funny for different. So that's that's
If it's a funny word, it's funny in and of itself. Yeah,
I don't know. I feel like we're at the end
of our Platypus podcast. Where are you thinking? I'm thinking
(17:06):
now that we've devolved into trying to find the cloakal
like words. Yeah, so, I mean that's a basic overview
of the of the platypus and why it is a
unique not only a unique animal and a funny looking animal,
but also an important animal and and one that's worthy
of continued study. Yeah, and it's still a mystery, right,
They still are trying to figure out why this genetic
(17:27):
material is showing up. What does it mean again in
the in the bigger context for humans in terms of
what we're made up of. Um, you know, I have
birdlike behavior. Sometimes I have to wonder if I've got
some genetic expression expressions going on there like worms. We
must have some listener mail, and we have some listener mail.
We have received quite a bit from our recent podcast
(17:50):
titled is Mathematics and Human Discovery or Human Invention? Uh,
which is cool because that was a really fun one
to put together, um and uh. And you know we
won't be able to read everything that's see, but I
wanted to just touch in a few um. Our reader
by the name of listener by the name of Jeremy
writes in and says, hey, Robert and Dewey, I was
listening to your mathematics podcast. This one particularly interested me
(18:13):
because I'm somewhat of a mathlete in high school. That's
that's awesome. I don't think either of us for mathletes anyway.
When you mentioned the Godal's first incompleteness theorem, it struck
me as a kind is kind of funny because it
reminded me of Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
I've read the six book trilogy a few times and
one quote has always stood out to me. There is
(18:33):
a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly
what the universe is for and why it is there,
it will instantly disappear and replaced be replaced by something
even more bizarrely inexplicable. There is another theory which states
that this has already happened. So Jeremy goes on to add,
I'd have to agree with Godal's theorem. We'll never fully
(18:54):
grasp everything that's out there. Think of things like this. Uh.
Some some discovered cells and plants. Eventually they discovered the
cells were made up of smaller parts like uh, mitochondria
and DNA. Later it was discovered that these smaller pieces
were made up of molecules, and the molecules were made
up of atoms. Adams had neutrons, protons, and electrons, and
now all these are made up of quarks and between
thos and so forth and so on. That's all keep
(19:17):
up the great work of the podcast. So that was quarks, neutrinos,
that's all. I love that. Well, he too. He took
us to the edge of human understanding. I know, I know,
I kind of mine cracked us and they just left
us there. Oh he's a athlete, would he expect they're
They're intense. We also heard from Leanna, and Leanna writes
(19:38):
in Hey Robert and Juliet. I wanted you to know
that I enjoyed your math podcast. I was an English
major who was a was math phobic. Now we're talking
there's more like our people when I was in high
school and college. But in recent years, I've discovered that
I'm fascinated by the ideas in higher mathematics and science.
I think it's because I discovered the patterns shown in
things like the Nazi numbers and fract Last December, our
(20:01):
office was picking out calendars for the coming year, and
I really had trouble deciding what I wanted to get.
I'm not one for having pictures of dogs or kittens
on my wall, and I've had calendars with pictures of
flowers and famous artists work for the past five years,
so I'd really excited when I ran across the calendar
showing pictures created by fractals. I get so many comments
on the beauty of the pictures. Some of them are
psychedelic and others are very soothing, but each is unique,
(20:24):
and I get a kick out of explaining to people
that the pictures are product of mathematical equations, because the
most common cons comment after that is really mathematics can
be beautiful even to a mathe phobic English major. Thanks
for the podcast. He makes science even more interesting. Well
that's high praise. I can't really ask for anything. Um
(20:46):
and then I don't think I'm actually not going to
be able to read this whole email, but I just
wanted to say thank Jim for writing in. He had
had some wonderful contents about the whole uh question of
whether math is a invention or discoveries. I'm just just
a quick excerpt from this. I oscillate between the invention
discovery camp, and I don't have a strong conviction between either,
(21:08):
but right now I'm leaning in the invention camp. To me,
mathematics has been an invention that allows us to model
many things we observed physics, chemistry, biology, et cetera. All
of these disciplines existed before mathematics, and they will surely
exist should mathematics be forgotten. There may even be other
models that represent them as well. Uh So, anyway, he
goes on from there. It was a great you know,
(21:30):
I really enjoyed reading, so thank you for sending that in.
And I also wanted to add a quick note on
the mathematics podcast. I briefly mentioned, um, the idea that
that did the angles and numbers and like an ancient
Phoenician numboard of numbers were related to what that that
numerals stood for. And uh, I kind of aired there
because that's uh that the contested idea. Uh So, don't
(21:54):
take that one to the banquet you It's just it's
just more of a I think it's more of an
observation that people have made over over the years. But
and uh, and on surface it sounds great, but when
you start looking at the data, it's like people really
disagree on whether that holds any water. Uh. But everything
else in the podcast is good to go. Cool. So
if you want to talk to us about the platypus,
(22:16):
if you have, especially, I would really love to hear
if anybody who has any actual hands on experience with
platypos out there. Yeah, I mean Australian listeners to what
does it? Does it mean something in their culture? Like
what's it like to live in a country of of platypos?
I mean, you guys, we have actually have a number
of Australian listeners and uh and you guys have amazing
(22:37):
animals and this is just one of them, so it's yeah,
where are they in the hierarchy? Yeah, yeah, we'd love
to hear about that. You can find us on Facebook
and Twitter. We are blow the Mind on both of
those things, and you can also send us an emailt
at blow the Mind at how stuff works dot com.
Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff
from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we
(22:59):
explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow.
Stuff To Blow Your Mind News
Hosts And Creators
Robert Lamb
Joe McCormick
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.