EUROPE'S "first platypus" is still intact after 200 years.
Q: Where?
A: A sealed box in a cupboard in London's Natural History Museum.
Q: A rather humble resting place for such a fascinating relic, is it not?
A: Rather, but it has to be protected from changes in temperature and humidity.
Q: How did it get there in the first place?
A: It arrived from Down Under in 1799 when it was first described by the museum's celebrated naturalist, George Shaw.
Q: Could he believe his eyes?
A: No. The strange creature with a brown fur-covered body, shortwebbed feet and large duck-like bill seemed so unlikely that many people thought it was a fake. Shaw admitted: "It is impossible not to entertain some doubts as to the genuine nature of the animal."
Q: How were the doubts resolved?
A: Only when further examples were caught and shipped to Europe.
Once described as "a duck designed by committee", it is famous for laying eggs, yet producing milk, having a bird-like bill, a skeleton with reptilian features and poisonous spurs on its front legs.
Q: What's so special about the first one?
A: Because it was the individual used for the first scientific description of a platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), it has become what is known as the "holotype" or "type specimen". Every creature on Earth has one type specimen, used to determine whether later discoveries are a new species or sub-species.
Q: Do the Aussies want it back?
A: There was huge interest last weekend after photographs of the "first platypus", taken under special conditions, appeared in an Australian newspaper but so far this story doesn't seem to have the makings of an Aussie Elgin marbles saga.
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