When Europeans first encountered the odd-looking platypus, it became the centre of scientific debate: was it real or just an elaborate hoax? The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) has a puzzling ...

Ferdinand Bauer's platypus watercolour, based on sketches he made while on the HMS Investigator voyage in the early 1800s, was among the first attempts by a European artist to record Australian flora ...