Mariel Carr/Science History Institute
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Behind its adorable appearance, the platypus is a very poisonous animal.
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HAI-Online.com – Behind his cute looks, it turns out platipus is an animal that stores a lot of poison.
The mammal that inspired Psyduck’s character in Pokemon is known to have a lot of poison in its body.
According to researchers, this duck-billed animal can produce 80 different types of poison from its body!
Even though it is classified as a mammal, its genes platipus called similar to other venomous animals including snakes, lizards, starfish, and sea anemones.
This was revealed in a 2010 study on the platypus which was published in the journal Genome Biology.
Launch Nature, lead author of the study from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, Wesley Warren revealed that platipus has undergone evolution naturally in the eyes, fins, and wings.
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While the platypus venom is an example of convergent evolution in which two species of different breeds have the same morphology.
The platypus is a semi-aquatic egg-laying mammal usually found in Australia. This species is one of the few mammals that produces venom.
This venom is only possessed by the male platypus which is secreted through the spurs of its hind ankle. Interestingly, the males only make poison during the breeding season.
Warren explained that this was probably done by the male platypus to defend their territory from the males of other groups.
In his study, Warren and his team sequenced messenger RNA (mRNA) from the venom glands of a dead male platypus. To identify the content in platypus venom, they looked for genes that are not produced in other tissues as well as genes that resemble venom from other animals.
The scans showed as many as 83 genes in 13 different families of toxins linked to inflammation, nerve damage, muscle contraction and blood clotting.
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Simply put, the platypus makes 26 different types of serine protease enzymes that are usually found in snake venom.
The other seven venom genes resemble a neurotoxin produced by spiders called alpha-latrotoxin.
“Additional testing is needed to determine the function of each toxin content,” Warren explained.
Meanwhile, the head of the laboratory at the University of Melbourne, Australia, Bryan Fry explained, closely related animals tend to produce similar toxins.
“If you want to find something that is potentially useful in planning and developing a drug from a venom, you are more likely to find it in a new venom like platypus venom than in a rattlesnake,” Fry said.
Platypus poison effect
Although it does not cause death, male platypus venom can be fatal, you know!
Doctors in Australia reported a case in which a 57-year-old man was poisoned after he caught one of the small mammals while fishing.
“The pain (from the platypus venom) was so painful that I started to get confused,” said the man.
In fact, pain relievers such as ibuprofen and morphine did not reduce the pain caused, instead one finger was swollen and painful for more than 4 months after using the drug.
Well, behind the adorable appearance of the platypus, it turns out that the platypus has a dangerous poison.
These are 5 Animals That Don’t Have Brains, On Average Live in the Sea This article has been published on Kompas.com with the title
“Has a funny face, Platypus turns out to be a very poisonous animal”
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