Resting Platupus by ALIX O'NEIL

The platypus is a shy vulnerable Australian monotreme (egg laying marsupial)

First discovered in 1799 preserved and sent back to Britain, biologist George Shaw thought that it was a bird and cat expertly taxidermized together. It was like nothing he had seen before: the creature had the body of a furry brown cat, four short legs and sharp claws over webbed feet; the tail of a beaver, but the beak of a duck.

The scientific world was moving through a new, exciting age of discovery and debate. Biologists in Europe were close to developing a classification system for animals, and theories on how those animals came to be were brewing. The platypus, with its flexible beak and venomous spurs, was a crowbar in the gear-work of known science, causing debates that would not be resolved for 90 years.