Though this strange little water creature had been around since the beginning, it was not discovered by man until 1776. Early white settlers, just outside of Sidney, Australia, discovered this intriguing animal in a stream near the Hawkesbury River. They had no idea what kind of creature this was, having never seen anything of its likeness before. It was unlike any animal they had ever encountered. The governor later sent a specimen back to their mother country England. 

The people of England were equally perplexed by this unusual animal. It had a bill like a duck, fur like a mammal, a tail like a beaver, webbed feet, and a poisonous spur on its back leg. If they had seen it alive, they would also find out that it laid eggs, and nursed its young through pores in the skin. While examining the animal one zoologist suggested that the whole thing was a fraud. He called the specimen a "freak impostor." He was sure that the animal was cleverly sewn together. To prove his point he took a pair of scissors and tried to pry the bill off of the platypus. I am sure he was quite surprised to find that the bill was quite intact to the pelt. (The original animal is on display at the British Museum of Natural History, in London, and the scissor marks can still be seen.) The animal was named Platypus, because of its flat bill, and given the scientific name Ornithorhynchus. 

Scientist were unsure how to classify this animal. It could not be a mammal, because it laid eggs, had a bill like a duck and webbed feet. It could not be a reptile or a bird, because it had fur and it nursed it's young. The platypus was finally classified as a new species, a Monotreme. 

Most modern scientist do not like to discuss the platypus, because they can find no way to explain it. They know that this one animal totally defies the theory of evolution; it could not have evolved from anything. The only answer must be that it did not evolve but that it was created just as it is today. 

"What about the history of the platypus? Where did it come from? Why is it only found in Australia? All fossils found of it are essentially the same as today's living creatures. It certainly shows no signs of evolution. It's only significant change seems to have been to lose some teeth and shrink in size. Indeed evolutionary scientists are baffled about the ancestry of the platypus. They openly admit that nothing is known about its history that can explain its geographical distribution. But then, all they had to go on until 1984 were two teeth, a jaw fragment, a hip-bone from the deserts of north eastern South Australia, and a skull from northwestern Queensland over 1,200 kilometres away. Evoltionist said these fossil platypus fragments weren't useful, since they were merely 15 million years old. 

In 1984, however, a platypus jaw, with three large teeth, was found among a collection of opalised bones at Lightening Ridge, in northern New South Wales, and pronounced to be at least 110 million years old. Naturally, evolutionist scientists were excited. It seemed they had now established the platypus's great antiquity. Before that discovery, they had believed that no land mammal had been found in Australia in sediments dated older than 23 million years. 

But this platypus jaw did not help the evolutionists discover how the platypus evolved. The new jaw was bigger than that of the present day platypus and had larger teeth. If anything it showed that today's platypus had degenerated since the time of its ancestor. But evolutionists can never say anything so straight forward. Their pronouncements based on the skull included claims such the platypus must have undergone such a relatively rapid period of specialization during the past 15 million years that it had climbed far out on a long, thin evolutionary limb, and so well may be headed for 'evolutionary oblivion'. In other words, there is no evidence that platypuses have evolved, but there is abundant evidence they have degenerated--which fits the Genesis record precisely. 

I once read in an encyclopedia that the platypus was one of "the most primitive mammals alive." What an error in fact and judgement! The platypus is a wonderful example of God's magnificent design. 

Let's have a look at the Platypus: The platypus lives in Australia and in some parts of Tasmania. It makes its home in streams, it digs burrows with its claws (the webbing can roll up into its palms so that its claws will be more accessible for digging.)  The burrow is a type of half circle with entrances on either side. Often it is under the roots of a tree. The female platypus will add on to the burrow another room, used as a nursery. The entrance is always above water, the platypus will usually try to get all the excess water off its fur before entering its burrow to keep its home as dry as possible. 
        The platypus usually eats its weight in food each day. That is the primary reason they are not kept in zoos; they eat so much that it is very difficult to keep them alive. The Lord has provided for all their needs in their natural habitat. The animal has a very unique way of finding food. It usually searches for food, and eats for about 12 hours out of the day. The platypus searches for its food with both its eyes and ears closed. Up until a few years ago, scientist assumed that this was because the animal was so primitive and it had not learned how to properly use its faculties, but then an amazing discovery 
was made: The platypus's bill is a "highly tuned receptor." It picks up the slight electrical fields generated by the worms and shrimp that it eats. This "receptor" is so sensitive that it can even find the worms and shrimp when they are hidden in the mud or under rocks. On land the platypus has excellent vision and hearing. 

How did the platypus get to Australia after Noah's flood? 

"If they were on the Ark they obviously swam and walked here from Mt. Ararat. This would have taken years, even centuries. The platypus could have used any land bridges that existed between Asia and Australia as a result of the drastic lowering of sea level during the ice age subsequent to the Flood. But once the ice age ended and the land bridges disappeared the platypuses were left to thrive in isolation on their island continent home." 

The platypus is the only known poisonous mammal.  It has a spur on the back of its leg which contains poisonous venom. It is extremely painful, but it has not been known to cause any deaths among humans. 

The female platypus lays eggs, usually two at time; they are soft skinned and sticky. The mother platypus will sit on her eggs to incubate them; the baby platypuses usually hatch in about ten days. The babies are blind and fur-less when they are born. They will nurse from their mother by sucking on tufts of hair on her stomach, the milk seeps through the skin from enlarged milk glands. 

So, if you ever come upon this shy, furry creature, while walking along a stream in Australia, I hope that you will look upon it with awe of its Creator.* 

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