I love the platypus. I have ever since I was a kid. When stuffed platypi were first brought back to England from Australia, they were rejected as fakes. Bad fakes even, obvious attempts by desperate amateur zoologists seeking a bit of fame. How else to explain a ducked billed otter with webbed feet, barbed venomous tail, with egg laying that would put a chicken to shame? The very concept of such an animal was comic, and many professors felt insulted that they were even to be expected to believe such nonsense.