The platypus has an array of unique features:
- It is a mammal
- It lays eggs (like a bird)
- It uses electric sensors on its bill 3 4 (supposedly independently evolved in some fish 5 and possibly even a species of trilobite 6)
- It has venom (one of the few mammals to have venom)
- It has a beaver-like tail
- It has otter-like feet
- It has a bill that looks much like a duck’s
Convergence: A Problem for Evolution
When evolutionists try to draw their "tree" of related animals, they have a problem: not everything "fits." They must say that some things---even things that are extremely similar---evolved multiple times independently (called convergence). They say that eyes evolved 40-60 times independently. This is awkward for evolutionists to explain, but it makes much more sense for a creationist: God reuses good designs!
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Dawkins, R. (2004). The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
- http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/cm/v24/n2/platypus ↩
- Dawkins, 2004, p. 235: “An early Latin name of the platypus was Ornithorhynchus paradoxus. It seemed so weird when first discovered that a specimen sent to a museum was thought to be a hoax: bits of mammal and bits of bird stitched together.” ↩
- Dawkins, 2004, p. 237: “But, as we shall see, in one respect the bill is even better than a hand: it can reach out and ‘feel’ things that it is not touching. It can feel at a distance. It does it by electricity.” ↩
- Dawkins, 2004, p. 238: “Platypuses have about 40,000 electrical sensors distributed in longitudinal stripes over both surfaces of the bill. As the platypus shows, a large proportion of the brain is given over to processing the data from these 40,000 sensors. But the plot thickens. In addition to the 40,000 electrical sensors, there are about 60,000 mechanical sensors called push rods, scattered over the surface of the bill. … “ ↩
- Dawkins, 2004, p. 239: “The platypus is not the only animal to use this kind of electrical sense. Various fish do it, including paddlefish such as Polyodon spathula. … The paddle is obviously doing something important in the life of the fish, and it has in fact been clearly demonstrated that it is doing the same job as the platypus bill — detecting electric fields from prey animals. As with the platypus, the electrical sensors are set into pores deployed in longitudinal lines. The two system are independently evolved, however. Platypus electrical pores are modified mucus glands. Paddlefish electric pores are so similar to the pores used by sharks for electrical sensing, called ampullae of Lorenzini, that they have been given the same name.” ↩
- Dawkins, 2004, p. 240: “Platypus and paddlefish, then, have independently hit upon the same ingenious trick. Has any other animal discovered it? Whilst doing his D.Phil. Work in China, my research assistant Sam Turvey encountered an extremely unusual trilobite called reedocalymene. Otherwise a ‘bog-standard’ trilobite (similar to the Dudley Bug, Calymene, which features on the coat of arms of the town of Dudley), Reedocalymene has one unique and remarkable feature: a huge flattened tostrum, like that of a paddlefish, sticking out a whole body length in front. It can’t have been for streamlining, since this trilobite, unlike many others, was obviously unfitted for swimming above the sea bed. A defensive purpose is also unlikely for various reasons. Like a paddlefish, sturgeon or platypus bill, the trilobite’s rostrum is studded with what look like sensory receptors, probably used for detecting prey. Turvey knows of no modern arthropods with an electrical sense (interesting in itself, given the versatility of the arthropods), but he would put money on Reedocalymene being yet another ‘paddlefish’ or ‘platypus’.” ↩