It lays eggs and exhibits a slender beak like birds, but it is covered in hair and has webbed legs. This curious animal hybrid is calledplatypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), and its genome has just been sequenced by an international team of scientists. “It is probablythe most anticipated genetic sequence from the chimpanzee genome, because platypuses are so weird, “says Jenny Graves, director of theComparative Genomics Groupat the Australian National University and co-author of the article published today by the journalNature.
When the platypus was discovered inAustralia By a team of British researchers, they thought it was a joke by the Australians, who had attached a beak and bird feet to an otter-like creature. But nothing is further from the truth: this animal represents an early branch of the lineage of themammals,situated166 million years agoand from primitive ancestors that had hybrid characteristics. And it is that, although the platypus is classified as amammalbecause it produces milk, suckles its young and is covered by hair, it also haslegs of a birdor a reptile. In addition, males have apoisonous spuron the hind limbs, like certain reptiles.
Now, analyzing their18.500 genes, scientists have identified for the first time the sequences responsible for lactation, reproduction by eggs and the production of venom. As if this were not enough, they have discovered that it has the ability to detect odors underwater thanks to genes also present in dogs and rodents.electrosensory systemto capture the electromagnetic fields emitted by potential predators
“Your genome is priceless when it comes to understanding how mammals evolved,” says Francis Collins, director of the National Institute for the Study of the Human Genome in the United States.
