Platypus Genome Decoded

TaeKwonDood writes "Is it reptile, bird or mammal? Some of each. Does it have venom, lay eggs and lactate? Yes. Upon discovery in 1798, fellow scientists thought it was for an episode of 'Thou hast been Punk'd,' but this Australia native, on home on land and in water, is real and, finally, it gets its own decoded genome. It's no surprise the DNA is as messed up as the critter itself."

Comments

Re:Poisonous

[jimmux]

Not only is it painful, it has the curious effect that morphine is completely ineffective against it. I wonder if that had anything to do with this gentleman's preference for the grenade.

Re:QED

[Frantactical Fruke]

I suggest you read the Book of Joshua in the Bible. Basically God sends out His people to commit genocide in the promised land, and he gets very angry, if they neglect to slaughter every man, woman, child and sheep of the opposing cities. Now imagine people basing their faith on this part of the Bible. They'd make Al-Qaeda look like hippies.

Re:H isn't a nucleobase

[Bob-taro]

Well, really, it's the misshapen chimera all of the anti-evolution people demand to see, but it's too cute and mild-mannered to want to upset anyone's world view.

Well, that's the funny thing about a world view, isn't it? The same facts can be considered "evidence" of 2 different views. An evolutionist might say, "look! a transitional species! a product of geographical isolation and unique environmental pressures!". A creationist might say, "look, a totally unique creation that defies your attempts at taxonomy!". It is what it is, but how you think it got here is probably going to be determined by how you already think everything else got here.