[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]
Robin Williams thought that the platypus was cobbled together by an inebriated deity: “Let’s take a beaver. Let’s put on a duck’s bill.” Now we know how weird the platypus is at the genetic level. Because researchers published the sequence of the platypus genome in the May 8th issue of the journal Nature. Brown University biologist Kenneth Miller commented on the platypus genome research that same night at the American Museum of Natural History:
“The platypus…has been known for a long time to have a very curious amalgam of anatomical features. So the interesting question is when we get a look at its DNA would it also have a curious amalgam of genetic features…it sure does. In fact, parts of it apparently were extremely difficult to sequence because they were so different from other mammalian genomes, to which we often compare sequences in order to align them and put the sequence together. It has not just a curious combination of mammalian and reptilian physiological features, it has a curious combination of mammalian and reptilian genetic features as well.” (Williams, doing his stoned deity impression again): “He’s a mammal. But he lays eggs!”
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