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The platypus is by far the strangest mammal, with its bird-like bill and reptile traits. Its genetics seems to be equally strange, as revealed by a new research published in the Nature journal and carried out by Prof Chris Ponting's team at the Medical Research Council Functional Genomics Unit in Oxford, the Eur... |
8 May 2008
04:24 GMT |
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1. The platypus represents one of the most peculiar living mammals. And beyond peculiarity, it is really the most primitive living mammal, together with its relatives, the echidnas, forming the group Monotrema ("one orifice", as they have only the cloaca). They have many traits still common to reptiles, but not found... |
21 February 2008
14:06 GMT |
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When the first platypus furs were brought to Europe, people thought that duck bills had been glued to the skins. The platypuses and the four current echidna species are the only living "monotremes," mammals with reptilian traits as they lay eggs and have a cloaca and three bones in the shoulder girdle (the other mamm... |
24 January 2008
02:58 GMT |
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Kangaroos hit again on one of the myths of the sex genetics. When it was discovered in the early '90s, the XIST gene was regarded as essential in the process of inactivating the supplementary X chromosome in females. The gene has been believed to switch off the extra X chromosome during embryonic development and... |
1 May 2007
07:19 GMT |
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