The platypus, Ornithorhynchus anatinus, is surely one of the most amazing animals in the world, and it still has so much to tell us about the whole of mammalian evolution. It is therefore particularly appropriate on the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin in 1809 to recall his first encounter with a platypus during the voyage of the Beagle, and show how he was able to use it to support his concept of the gradual evolution of species over time.
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