You might think you know why the platypus is a bizarre beast. Maybe you know that it lays eggs, that the males have venomous spurs on their ankles, and that it can sense electricity with its bill. But ...

The platypus sports fur like a mammal, paddles its duck feet like a bird and lays eggs in the manner of a reptile. Nature's instruction manual for this oddball, it turns out, is just as much of a ...

Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in ...

When Geoff Williams found and tagged a one-year-old male platypus as part of a survey in November 2000, he probably didn’t anticipate ever seeing the animal again. But more than two decades later, in ...

You might know the platypus as Australia's iconic shy, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed, egg-laying mammal. Unfortunately, the odd animal is also struggling to survive. This is why Australia ...

Martin Ezcurra receives funding from the DFG Emmy Noether Programme (BU 2587/3-1 to Richard Butler) and a Marie Curie Career Integration Grant (PCIG14-GA-2013-630123 ARCHOSAUR RISE to Richard Butler).

Don’t pet the platypus. I know it’s tempting: Given the chance, I’d want to stroke their thick brown fur, tickle those big webbed feet, and pat that funny duck bill. And why not? What harm could come ...

SYDNEY, July 25 (Reuters) - The world's largest platypus conservation centre has welcomed its first residents as part of a project to protect the semi-aquatic mammal found only in Australia amid ...