Platypuses—yes, that's the preferred plural—are quite remarkable creatures. Not only are they egg-laying mammals, but they have a sixth sense. Their duckbills function as an electrosensory organ, similar to how dolphins use echolocation, only with electromagnetic fields instead of sound waves. They are so sensitive that many a platypus died of sensory overload from being transported by boat across the Pacific.
The platypus is known as a peculiar creature, with attributes seemingly cobbled together from any number of other animals, but that's only because of our frame of reference. It's certainly well adapted to its own environment, swimming in rivers and swamps and darting across land, burrowing into underground mud nests. Females lactate but have no teats; young obtain milky secretions directly from their mother's underbelly. Males have a poisonous horny spur—presumed a weapon in courtship fights.
Although the species is threatened by habitat destruction, the platypus' survival reminds us of the artificiality of humankind's categorical systems in the face of natural spontaneity, adaptation, and diversity. And also emboldens those among us who can relate to taxonomical isolation.
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