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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 52| August 2001
Platypus Paradoxes
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Curiouser and curiouser said Alice to the White Rabbit. This can most certainly be said about Australias egg-laying mammal, the platypus. Its not only the zoological description that caused bewilderment and scepticism in the scientific and lay communities of the late 1790s. A recent acquisition by the National Library of Australia, Bertuchs Bilderbuch fur Kinder (Weimar: 17981830) may require a re-examination of the taxonomic and bibliographic histories of one of Australias most important icons. Who was the first to classify and describe the platypus? When did it first appear in print? Up until now, history has accorded the classification and illustration to George Shaw and his Naturalists Miscellany (1799). A naturalist of some standing with experience in classifying the other Monotreme, the echidna, he classified the water mole as Platypus anatinusthe duck billed platypus. The two splendid coloured plates by Frederick Nodder together with their English and Latin descriptions gave the animal important authenticity in a society where clever hoaxes were well known. It sparked a debate between the creationists and evolutionists about how the animal fitted into the various classification schemes of the day. |
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Platypus plate. Reproduced from Bilderbuch fur Kinder: enthaltend eine angenehme Sammlung von Thieren, Planzen, Blumen, Fruchten by J.F. Bertuch (Weimar, Germany: im Verlage des Landes-Industrie-Comptoirs, 17981830) |
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Enter Sir Joseph Banks and Johann Blumenbach. It would seem that Banks gave his German colleague, a distinguished naturalist and comparative anatomist, a specimen in 1799. The following year Blumenbach published in his Abbildungen naturhistorischer Gegenstande (v. 5, no. 41) a description and plate of the platypus naming itOrnithorhynchus paradoxus or Das Schnabelthier. From here the taxonomic and bibliographic plots thicken. In 1798 the Verlag des Landes-Industrie Comptoirs began a lavish publicationa childrens illustrated encyclopedia essentially of natural history, in 237 parts. It was to include 1186 handcoloured engraved plates of high quality with short descriptions in German and French, eventually bound into 12 volumes. It was one of the first and finest German picture books for children following in the tradition of Comeniuss Orbis pictis. There in 1798, specifically no.80, v.3, appeared two illustrations and a description of Das Schnabelthier (Ornithorhynchus paradoxus)exactly the same classification which was puzzling the world and as issued by Blumenbach a couple of years later. Harry Burrell in his definitive work The Platypus (1927) gives a tantalising clue. Banks sent a platypus specimen to Blumenbach as early as 1796. With Blumenbach working in Germany it wouldnt have been difficult for him to give Bertuch in Weimar information about this strange creature if he had received a specimen that early. But why publish it in a childrens magazine? Interestingly enough a comparison of the Bertuch and Blumenbach plates does indicate some similarity. Had Blumenbach classified it much earlier than his published account would have the world believe? Has Bertuchs work pre-empted Shaws? And how does the classification puzzle finally end? Today its officially classified as Ornithorhynchus anatinus because the genus Platypus had previously been used. It would seem that both classifiers have triumphed, although the popular name platypus persists to this day. This curious animal, 203 years after its 1798 appearance in Europe, still has the power to interest the academic world. It is hoped this acquisition may help toward solving the many unanswered questions. The Bilderbuch also includes dozens of descriptions of
Australian flora and fauna such as the mysterious dugong, the koala,
Tasmanian tiger and devil, cockatoos, parrots, snakes, lizards, shells
and ferns as well as views of Hobart and Sydney towns and portraits of
the Tasmanian Aborigines. |
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Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: dthomas@nla.gov.au