Review of PLATYPUS MATTERS
The world’s most interesting mammals
Australian animals are unique in their characteristics and diversity compared to the rest of the world. And the platypus, in particular, captivates onlookers for many reasons. Though, you’ve likely never seen one in person. Unless you visit their native Australia, the only two platypuses that exist outside their homeland are at the San Diego Zoo.
These unique animals of Australia, such as the platypus and the kangaroo, are iconic symbols of evolution. Symbols of a less traveled evolutionary path. But what is the story of these interesting animals unlike what we see across the rest of the globe? In Platypus Matters: The Extraordinary Story of Australian Mammals, Jack Ashby provides you with an evolutionary and historical account of the animal wonders down under.
Although Australian mammals are relatively unique compared to more common “live birth” mammals that most of us are familiar with, Australian mammals aren’t weird, they are just different in their characteristics in that they lay eggs (platypus) or birth underdeveloped young who mature and nurse in an external pouch (kangaroo). The truth is, though, these ‘weird’ mammals are every bit mammal as those that birth live young, they are just less common currently in the long 210-million-year history of mammal evolution.
Mammals are defined by feeding young via mammary glands, in addition to specific jawbone structure, among other less visible characteristics. In opposition to common assumptions, mammals are not defined by giving live birth. Although the platypus is one of only five species of living mammal to lay eggs, egg laying is actually the original form of mammals – live birth evolved later. So, mammals can fall into three groups: monotremes (egg layers), marsupials (young develop in pouches), and placentals (live birth to developed young).
Platypus Matters provides interesting and informative evolutionary insight to the uniqueness of Australian Mammals, but Ashby offers more than just evolutionary insight. He offers historical analysis and, importantly, rebuttals many cultural misperceptions of Australian mammals.
In particular, Ashby focuses extensively on dispelling the idea of platypuses and other Australian mammals as “primitive” or “weird”. Ashby is adamant in his advocacy for countering outdated narratives of evolutionary hierarchies and evolutionary progress. Platypuses aren’t weird or primitive – no living mammal, by definition, is primitive. Rather the platypus is highly evolved and specialized for its environment, as are all other Australian mammals.
This was overall a highly informative book on Australian mammals and, in particular, about platypuses (Ashby’s favorite animal). For me, personally, I was expecting more evolution and less history, making the book not quite meet my (inaccurate) expectations despite it being an objectively great book.
Published: August 2022
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Format: Hardcover
If you think this sounds interesting, bookmark these other great reads:
The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us by Steve Brusatte(2022)
Spying on Whales: The Past, Present, and Future of Earth's Most Awesome Creatures by Nick Pyenson (2018)
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