Can evolution explain the duck billed platypus?

Question

An egg laying mammal.

Answer 1

Evolutionists can even explain the inexplicable, with their distorted and zany logic. Check it out for yourself. They will forward hundred and one theory. Like, the platypus or platy for short, in order to swin away from predators took to water and developed webs in their feet, put on a bill ,started laying eggs etc etc.And remember, this has to happen all atonce or our lil platy will die,leaving no decendents cause being a mammal alla off-springs drowned cause he did not know the art of egg making.All this is plain rubbish.Our platy is no link inbetween the mammals and reptiles.He is the way he was created.A quack to evolution theory.

Answer 2

Hmm... yes, but only if you accept the precepts of evolution (all animals, at some point, had a common ancestor, and the degree of likeness between two animals grows greater when the common ancestor is closer in history).

There was debate at some point within the scientific community as to whether the duck billed platypus really is a mammal or whether it's a reptile. It lays eggs (reptilian) but nurtures its young with milk secreted by modified sweat glands (mammalian), doesn't have nipples (reptilian) but does have fur (mammalian); it's warm blooded (mammalian), but there again so are birds, and they're a different evolutionary tree from reptiles than we mammals...

There was also some debate about a nerve that goes through the bone in one phylum but around it in others, just don't ask me where the platypus lies on that...

So the platypus is certainly proof that things aren't as neat and tidy, classification-wise, as we'd perhaps like it to be. Which I guess is an argument for evolution. If you accept that mammals evolved from reptiles with mammalian traits then the platypus is the half way stop in between - if you don't accept evolution then you have to accept that the platypus is some half breed cousin of them both.

On the other hand, we have the extinct therapsids which at the moment are classified as reptiles with a lot of mammalian traits but seem to be extraordinarily similar to the platypus...

Answer 3

It is adapted to the environment where it is found. The egg laying gives it an advantage in that environment. It is not unreasonable that there is a mammal that can lay eggs. Mammals descended from the reptiles. There are reptiles that lay eggs and reptiles that give live birth. Obviously a mammal evolved from a reptile but held on to the ability to lay eggs. The monotremes (which a platypus belongs to) seem to be an early branch of mammals that evolved from reptiles. It holds some reptilian characteristics. In fact, early naturalists wanted to classify it as part reptile and part mammal.

Answer 4

The monotremes (platypus and edchina) are the only egglaying mammals. In Australia the marsupials are less evolved that the placented mammals so the monotremes have survived many million years. They have other reptilian characteristic like the low temperature (they temperature is about 27C / 80F insted of 37C / 98F, and changes much more).

The platypus looks as having a duck bill but it is not a real bill.

Answer 5

Actually, it's the only thing that can explain it.

Evolutionarily, all mammals are descended from egg-laying ancestors - notably the mammal-like reptiles (Synapsids).

The platypus, as a modern mammal that still retains this trait, is an example of evolution working to select for a trait that is advantageous.

In this case, the platypus has successfully exploited an ecological niche that is unavailable to other mammals in its region, due to the fact that it lays eggs.

Living in Australia, most of the endemic mammalian competition is made up of marsupials. In most circumstances, the marsupial's reproductive method is more efficient than the montreme's (egg-laying), and they have taken over most ecological niches.

However, marsupials have a remarkably difficult time exploiting aquatic habitats. Something about having your babies hanging out in a pouch makes it difficult for mommy marsupials to go swimming.

The platypus is able to thrive in this niche because its egg-laying frees it up to be able to forage in the water for worms, crayfish and tasty water bugs.

Everything about the platypus makes sense from an evolutionary perspective.

Answer 6

Um...of course it can.

Mammals evolved from egg-laying reptiles. A platypus is just a mammal that retained the "egg laying" characteristic.

Answer 7

"MrKnow_All"
Could you actually provide facts instead of unstructured opinions and obvious strawmen claims? Seriously I would like to hear a counterpoint that actually makes sense instead of the usual "evolutionists are crazy idiots, God just made it that way"