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Editorial Review Product Description
When the first dried specimen of a platypus arrived in England in 1799 it was greeted with astonishment and disbelief. Nineteenth-century naturalists struggled to classify the platypus and the little animal excited curiosity and sparked fierce debate in international scientific circles. This volume presents the enigmatic story of a biological riddle that confounded scientists for many years, challenging theories of creationism, evolution and the classification of species along the way.Amazon.com Review
Consider the platypus, that curious Australian creature that seems neither fish nor reptile nor mammal, but that has characteristics seemingly borrowed from all over the animal kingdom. Charles Darwin certainly considered it, puzzling over the platypus in the light of the rest of the world's creatures, and remarking, "Surely two distinct Creators must have been at work."Australian historian of science Ann Moyal offers plenty of natural-historical information on the platypus in this slender, enjoyable book. What's more, she examines the sometimes shocked reactions the platypus inspired in European naturalists when they first saw specimens of the creature at the dawn of the 19th century. For, Moyal writes, the platypus almost single-handedly (or, perhaps better, single-web-footedly) overturned the prevailing classification of animals according to great-chain-of-being models; with its hodgepodge of physical traits and behaviors, it offered "an unexpected bridge between the categories of mammal/quadruped and reptiles and birds." That bridge helped set evolutionary theory on a new course; as Moyal writes, the platypus played an explicit role in Charles Darwin's ideas on isolation, species diversity, and natural selection, and he branded it a prime example of a "living fossil" that had managed to find an unoccupied ecological niche and live, relatively undisturbed, while fellow creatures marched toward extinction. Scientists continue to study the platypus, Moyal writes in closing, for its remarkable traits, including a seeming sixth sense that helps it locate its prey in the underwater darkness. Her graceful book sheds new light on the history of biology and ought to earn Ornithorhynchus anatinus many new admirers. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more Customer Reviews (10) 
Breezy, light work of natural history
This is a little gem of a book. The platypus frustrated naturalists' taxonomic efforts and inspired some creative speculation about how exactly an animal that looks like a mammal might lay an egg like a bird. The scientific study of the platypus inspired heated debates, international posturing, and a surprising amount of awkwardly rhyming poetry. To be fair, this is not a weighty work and it tells more the story of European fascination with the animal than the biology and behavior of the animal itself.
Still, this is a charming work of natural history and runs as a nice tangent to the broader fields of the history of science and evolutionary biology. It isn't for everyone, but it is a breezy, fun work of popular science for readers interested in the subject.
A hsitory as interesting as the animal
Ann Moyal's "Platypus" is really two stories in one.As the tital suggests one of those stories is the history of the scientific struggle to understand an animal originally thought to be a chimaera and hoax.The second story is that of the people, preconceptions, and politics surrounding the science of natural history in the decades preceding and immediately following the Darwinian revolution of scientific thought.Moyal, through the narrow lens of a platypus-centralized story tells of the struggles, missteps and transformation of western science from franco/clerical to anglo-colonial/secular domination, and finally to the global excersise it has become today.It is fascinating that many of the greatest names in 18th and 19th century science (Cuvier, Meckel, Home, Geoffrey St-Hilaire, Owen, Darwin) all studied to some degree the anatomy and biology of the platypus!
The difficulties in studying the platypus are recreated in the pattern and pace of Moyal's prose.The overall progression of the book is temporal, but the chapters focus on the individuals and many of the chapters begin by backtracking in time to follow the story of another player in the story.This allows Moyal to explore each portion of the story she is telling as a series of mini-biographies, but requires diligence on the part of the reader to keep maintain an orderly timeline.
What was even more suprising is the size of the book, 15 chapters covering 205 pages (in an 5 in. X 8 in. format) with glossary (incomplete, but good for non-scientists), references, and index bringing the total to 226 pages.Out of the box my first impression was that is was too short.However, by the end of the book I felt satisfied that Moyal had adequetly, though not exhaustively, recounted the history of the study of the playpus and illuminated the position of this enigmatic creature as a focal point (one of many to be sure) of contention and controversy during a crucial period in the maturation of biological science.
A mediocre book about an extraordinary animal
This book is the story of a fascinating creature and those who studied it. Unfortunately, it was a letdown; the author's style is wordy and repetitive and the book is inflated with paragraphs and even chapters that could and should have been deleted. The entire story could have easily been told more concisely in the form of a magazine article. But then, the author wouldn't have had a book, would she? I am starting to think that these writers, who otherwise don't have much to say, stuff their manuscripts with minimally related material so as to have as many pages as they can. Do they get paid by the number of pages they write, or what?
WOW!
This book was an amazing story of how one small creature stumped a bunch of stuffy scientists. It really taught me about the platypus, and amused me at the same time. Kudos to the author.
Beautiful scholarly treatise.
Ann Moyal's portrait of the evolution of science with the Platypus as the centrefold was richly rewarding. The detail is a blessing as is the easy description of scientific terminology. I probably learnt as much about science as I did about the platypus. Complaints ? I don't read fiction so I love this stuff and it was too short. C'mon Ann, what's next ?*****
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