Sorry if the 
thumbnail on the left is a bit unclear, but you need to see the layout of today’s Daily Telegraph front page. I am sure you can make out the banner headline. The box just above it on the left proclaims IT’S A BIG FAT LIE. Unfortunate juxtaposition, don’t you think? Oh well, these things happen.
The story that fascinates me — and it is on the Tele site, but I have taken my version from ABC — is All mixed up: Platypus genome decoded.
Now we all know the platypus — and I am lucky enough to have seen them in the wild — is one very strange creature, along with its egg-laying anteater relative the Echidna, but just how weird and wonderful we now know for sure.
Scientists have for the first time unveiled the unusual genetic make-up of the Australian platypus.
According to the study released this morning in the journal Nature, the semi-aquatic animal is a genetic potpourri – part bird, part reptile and part lactating mammal.
The task of laying bare the platypus genome of 2.2 billion base pairs spread across 18,500 genes has taken several years, but will do far more than satisfy the curiosity of just biologists, say the researchers.
“The platypus genome is extremely important, because it is the missing link in our understanding of how we and other mammals first evolved,” explained Oxford University’s Chris Ponting, one of the study’s architects.
“This is our ticket back in time to when all mammals laid eggs while suckling their young on milk.”
Native to eastern mainland Australia and Tasmania, the semi-aquatic platypus is thought to have split off from a common ancestor shared with humans approximately 170 million years ago.
Apparently they missed their passage on Noah’s Ark… But no matter: they can swim. 
