'bizarre mix of mammal, bird and reptile, with very complex sexuality'

righthand

5-8-2008 10:15 AM

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/249651ce-7e9d-4100-b8c5-215d21190185/B6BA6C3F-B310-4D73-BC0C-D5B7294B0D8A/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/08/genetics.wildlife?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/08/genetics.wildlife?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews" style="font-size: 11px;">www.guardian.co.uk</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/08/genetics.wildlife?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews"><IMG height="276" width="460" alt="An Australian native platypus" src="http://image.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2008/05/07/platypus460x276.jpg" />
				  <P class="caption">A DNA study found the creatures to be a mix of mammal, bird and reptile with, even more strangely, 10 sex chromosomes</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/08/genetics.wildlife?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews"><DIV id="header"><DIV id="zones-nav"><DIV id="nav-bar"><DIV id="crumb-nav"><UL><LI id="crumb3"><A name="&lid={crumbNavigation}{Genetics}&lpos={crumbNavigation}{3}" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/genetics" class="first-end">Genetics</A></LI>
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<H1 class="article-no-standfirst" id="heading-alone">Platypus proves even odder than scientists thought</H1></DIV></DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/08/genetics.wildlife?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews">At first dismissed as a prank, and later cited as proof that God has a sense of humour, the duck-billed platypus has finally given up its evolutionary secrets</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/08/genetics.wildlife?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews">The creature, considered one of the strangest mammals in the world, has become the latest to have its genetic code sequenced, revealing it to be a bizarre mix of mammal, bird and reptile, with very complex sexuality. While humans have two sex chromosomes, the X and Y, the platypus has 10, with five of each kind</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/08/genetics.wildlife?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews">An international team of scientists extracted DNA from a female platypus, named Glennie, reading all 2.2bn pairs of her genetic "letters". Thought to have begun to diverge from other mammals 170m years ago, the platypus has been regarded as the nearest thing biologists have to a missing link between the earliest reptiles and mammals</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/B6BA6C3F-B310-4D73-BC0C-D5B7294B0D8A/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

righthand says:

The fact that the animal has five X and five Y chromosomes is "the weirdest thing about a very weird animal," said Ewan Birney, a co-author on the paper, based at the European Bioinformatics Institute, near Cambridge. "In theory it means there are 25 possible sexes, though in practice that doesn't happen."

6 Comments |

Add a Comment

5-8-2008 12:34 PM

hitchhiker08

Great clip!

5-8-2008 2:32 PM

carrerinyes

5-9-2008 7:59 AM

alanocu

10 chromosomes - that's really bizarre - can't really fathom that whole idea..

great clip righthand!

5-9-2008 9:42 AM

Brimstone

About a month ago I was researching monotremes. The platypus together with the four species of echidna are the only mammals that lay eggs.

And if I remember right, the male platypus has 4 penises.

5-9-2008 10:33 AM