I’m not sure I knew the platypus was venomous until I read The Nutmeg of Consolation and Maturin is stabbed by one...

I’m not sure I knew the platypus was venomous until I read The Nutmeg of Consolation and Maturin is stabbed by one and almost dies.  Steven didn’t know they were venomous either.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/wild_things/2015/06/22/platypus_venom_painful_immediate_long_lasting_impervious_to_painkillers.html

Comments

  1. Brian NewmanJune 23, 2015 at 12:07 PM

    Yep, platypi get everything! Even a cool plural!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Paul VermerenJune 23, 2015 at 12:10 PM

    I think all monotremes have those venom spurs (though echidnas lost the ability to produce venom).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Casey G.June 23, 2015 at 12:11 PM

    I've read it might be ancestral to all mammals.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Casey G.June 23, 2015 at 12:12 PM

    This is also how we know Perry the Platypus is female.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Paul VermerenJune 23, 2015 at 12:13 PM

    I once thought up a heavy-on-the-biology fantasy setting where there was a race of monotreme dwarves that were super-clannish and fought duels amongst each other with the petrified venom spurs of their ancestors.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lex LarsonJune 23, 2015 at 12:15 PM

    I knew this, but I had the advantage of an Australian relative.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Casey G.June 23, 2015 at 12:18 PM

    Australia: Even our cute mammals are venomous.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lex LarsonJune 23, 2015 at 12:42 PM

    Kangaroos will end you, for sure.  Koala claws are wicked sharp.

    ReplyDelete

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