Platypuses just got weirder.
As if a mammal that lays eggs, senses electricity with its bill and fluoresces isn’t enough of a headscratcher, now it appears platypuses also share a feature with birds. Tiny pigment-filled packets in the mammals’ hair are hollow — a trait previously thought to be found only in avian feathers, researchers report March 17 in Biology Letters.
Scientists have “never, ever seen anything like this before,” says biologist Jessica Dobson of Ghent University in Belgium.
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