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Who published the first scientific description of the platypus?
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platypus
The duck-billed platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), or duckbill, is common in the waterways of eastern Australia.
The 18th-century zoologist George Shaw published the first scientific description of the platypus.1
When the specimen was first encountered, its unusual appearanceāfeaturing a bill and webbed feetāled many contemporary naturalists, including Shaw himself, to initially suspect it was a hoax created by sewing parts of different animals together. As a member of the order Monotremata, the platypus possesses a unique combination of primitive and specialized traits that challenged early scientific classification.12