The Platypus, Ornithorhynchus anatinus - Two Centuries Since Its First Contact with The Scientific Community.

Abstract

Two hundred years have passed since a skin, representing the first specimen of the platypus to reach England, was sent from the Australian colony by Governor Hunter. After its description by Shaw in 1799 the species was first studied in Australia by a number of expatriate biologists who visited the colonies to collect specimens in the 1800s. Their work was followed in the early 1900s by a group of resident natural historians and later by an increasing number of academic biologists. All of these workers have contributed significantly to the current understanding of the biology of this unique Australian species, but it has been in the last I0-20 years of this century that scientific investigations of the species have diversified to greatly increase our understanding of many aspects of the biology of Ornithorhynchus anatinus.