Imagine stumbling upon a creature that looks like a mash-up of a duck, a beaver, and an otter—with a dash of poison thrown in ...

A team of scientists from Australia and the United Kingdom has finally elucidated the strange sex chromosome system of the duck-billed platypus. The first study, the findings of which are published ...

The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) has a puzzling array of features. Not only does it have that iconic duck bill, it lays eggs like a bird or reptile but feeds milk to its young like a mammal.