the platycrew

/ via national geographic / percy by mookah /halter by morosemelonhead / from my first vertebrate anatomy class /

it's no secret that stephanie, katelyn and i are a little obsessed with platypuses, but i am particularly fond of them - i must just love the oddball animals! the platypus genome was sequenced not too long ago and gives some insight into it's evolutionary relationship amongst more well-known creatures. unfortunately, the poor platypus isn't faring all that well - a curse of the uncommon species - threatened by traps and a nasty fungal disease. this native fungus apparently made its way from mainland australia to tasmania and has been wreaking havoc on the platypus populations there, but no one really knows why it's so devastating. hopefully it doesn't reach the magnitude of the devil facial tumor disease in the tasmanian devils! luckily, the platypus partnership program and australian platypus conservancy aim to monitor platypus populations and the latter tells about how to organize a 'platypus watch' or even lets you sponsor a rehabilitated animal.

anyway, speaking of stephanie - she's coming to nz and i cannot wait to see her!!