TIL The Duck-billed Platypus Venom Doesn't Kill, Just Induces Massive Pain
The first found Platypus in the late 1700's was originally thought be be a hoax, being a stitching together of many different animals (kind of like the Jackalope,) later found to be in fact it's own real species.
As if not already strange enough it's also only one of five egg laying mammalian species known to exist. Now top this all off with knowing that the males have a spur on the back of their hind legs that is venomous.
Since the Platypus doesn't have many predators to fend off as well as not needing the venom to hunt, it didn't make a lot of sense as to why they would even need this poisonous spur. This venom doesn't even really kill or paralyze victims, but rather excites the pain receptors making it in extremely non-fatal experience. Researchers have found that these males typically produce the venom in the Spring time coinciding with their mating season, leading them to believe that the poisonous spurs are used for competition with other males of their own species.
A final interesting piece of this story is that our common pain killers (even morphine) don't seem to help the pain of those that were poisoned by the male platypus. This has been leading to many scientists looking into this type of venom with hopes of developing other types of pain killers in the future.
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Image Sources:
Platypus
Jackalope
Platypus Spur
That is very interesting. Hopefully if they do find a new pain killer it will be less addictive than morphine.
I'm with you there! I can't wait for the day there are legal non-addictive replacements for that. At least some states have started with certain medicinal options, but I'm sure if they could package something from the platypus in a pill/injection form, it would get way less political blowback.
Good post. I was fortunate to see one wild in a small creek in the bush in Tasmania when I traveled there. Beautiful creatures.
Ty! I'm pretty jealous, I've not been in that part of the world myself, so haven't been able to see them in the wild which is always more amazing then in captivity or the tv/computer screens.
Even though this wasn't in the wild, this was too cute to not share:
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Heh, that's a strange one. Ty! :)
You're welcome:)
I was reading up about them today :-)
They are animals who dream the most :-)
Heh, that's pretty cool. That's something I'd not heard before. Ty! :)