The Platypus Genome Mapped

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Scientists have finally mapped the platypus genome. According to Nature, the platypus is an ancient off-shoot of the mammalian family tree. It’s part mammal and part reptile. We shared ancestors with the platypus about, oh, 166 million years ago. It’s only one of two mammals that lay eggs and the males are the only mammals that produce venom- through tiny spurs located on their hind legs.

At roughly 2.2 billion base pairs, the platypus genome is about two-thirds the size of the human genome, the researchers found. It shares more than 80 percent of its genes with other mammals.

["This is our ticket back in time to when all mammals laid eggs while suckling their young on milk," Oxford University's Chris Ponting, who was part of the study, told Agence France-Presse.]

Like humans, platypuses carry an X and a Y chromosome. But unlike humans, the X and Y are not sex chromosomes.

“That means we can go right back to the time when our sex chromosomes were just ordinary chromosomes minding their own business and ask well what happened, what made them into sex chromosomes,” Graves said.

The platypus is a mishmash of all sorts of things. It’s got characteristics of repiles, shares the same chromosomes of chickens, and they produce milk like mammals. Interestingly, the platypus has no nipples, so the young suckle straight from the mother’s abdominal skin.

“You see genes that look reptile-like, genes that look bird-like and genes that look mammal-like,” Rick Wilson, director of The Genome Center at Washington University in St Louis and part of the study, told Reuters. “It’s a pretty amazing picture.”

Scientists believe that if we study the platypus genome further we can likely find the point where some reptiles evolved to mammal form.

I’m sure, though, that those pushing Intelligent Design on the rest of us will have something negative to say. Perhaps they will compare the platypus to a crockaduck? Oh, that’s right. They hold the imaginary crockoduck up as an example of why evolution is wrong. They left the amazing and wonderful platypus out of the argument. Can we put it into the argument as proof of evolution now? I’m hoping so.

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