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Platypus Genes Offer Clues to Evolution
Okay, what has a bill and webbed feet like a duck, fur like a mammal, and lays eggs? If you answered the platypus, you're right. This shy, strange-looking Australian animal, feeds milk to its young like mammal, but lays eggs like a bird or reptile. Scientists decided to study the platypus to see if its genes provided clues to the way this unusual animal evolved.
About 100 scientists from the United States, Japan, and Australia just finished mapping the genome of a female platypus named Glennie. They looked at the DNA and compared it to the genes found in other animals, including reptiles and mammals. Scientists think that mammals evolved from reptiles. That means that a very long time ago, all animals laid eggs and were cold-blooded. 165 million years ago, a new kind of animal called a mammal split off from the reptiles. Mammals give live birth and produce milk for their young. Since then, mammals lost the traits they shared with reptiles, except for the platypus. That's why the platypus makes milk like a mammal, but still lays eggs like a reptile.
The scientists who conducted the study say we are lucky the platypus is still around to help us understand how life evolved on Earth over millions of years. Thanks for the biology lesson, platypus!
I'm Adelbert and that's what happened in science this week!
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