Scientists generally use "platypuses" or simply "platypus". There is no universally agreed plural of "platypus" in the English language. The scientific name Ornithorhynchus anatinus is derived from ορνιθόρυγχος ( ornithorhynkhos), which literally means "bird snout" in Greek and anatinus, which means "duck-like" in Latin. It was independently described as Ornithorhynchus paradoxus by Johann Blumenbach in 1800 (from a specimen given to him by Sir Joseph Banks) and following the rules of priority of nomenclature, it was later officially recognised as Ornithorhynchus anatinus. Shaw assigned the species the Linnaean name Platypus anatinus when he initially described it, but the genus term was quickly discovered to already be in use as the name of the wood-boring ambrosia beetle genus Platypus. The common name "platypus" is the latinisation of the Greek word πλατύπους ( platupous), "flat-footed", from πλατύς ( platus), "broad, wide, flat" and πούς ( pous), "foot". Shaw even took a pair of scissors to the dried skin to check for stitches. It was thought that somebody had sewn a duck's beak onto the body of a beaver-like animal. George Shaw, who produced the first description of the animal in the Naturalist's Miscellany in 1799, stated it was impossible not to entertain doubts as to its genuine nature, and Robert Knox believed it might have been produced by some Asian taxidermist. British scientists' initial hunch was that the attributes were a hoax. When the platypus was first encountered by Europeans in 1798, a pelt and sketch were sent back to Great Britain by Captain John Hunter, the second Governor of New South Wales. ![]() Travel australia platypus only in australia.Platypus the world s strangest animal nature documentary.The first preserved platypus body was thought to have been a fake, made of several animals sewn together, when it was first looked at by scientists in 1799. ![]() The animal is the sole living representative of its family ( Ornithorhynchidae) and genus ( Ornithorhynchus), though a number of related species have been found in the fossil record. Together with the four species of echidna, it is one of the five extant species of monotremes, the only mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth. The platypus ( Ornithorhynchus anatinus), sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania.
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