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A Paddle of Platypuses

Despite the platypus being a solitary creature, the National Library has recently turned into a sort of platypusary having acquired three works written over 30 years between 1803 and 1836 and, covering the 1830s, the period of heated scientific debate over its classification, anatomy and physiology.

The three recently acquired articles

The three recently acquired 19th-century articles
Photo: Loui Seselja

Illustration of Platypus

Illustration of Platypus from 'Beschryving van den Ornithorhynchus paradoxus of zonderbaar zoogend vogel-bek-dier van Nieuw-Hollandia' (1803)
nla.aus-vn4592819-s12

‘Australia’s iconic platypus is an aquatic mammal which lays eggs’—

This benign phrase in all its aspects was hotly debated in England and Europe in the nineteenth century. Was it a bird, mammal or reptile?—as it had characteristics of all three animals. It also played an important role in Charles Darwin’s ideas on isolation and species diversity in his On the Origin of Species (1859).

Naturalists thought the first dried specimen (reaching England in 1799) was a hoax yet this ‘highly interesting novelty’ would take another 90 years to decide on its classification and nomenclature beginning with the popular forms of duck-bill mole and water-mole to Blumenbach’s Ornithorhynchus paradoxus (1798, 1800) to George Shaw’s Platypus anatinus (flat footed duck bill, 1799) before finally settling on Ornithorhynchus anatinus (bird-like snout) as the name platypus had  previously been used in 1793. But to the world it is known as the platypus.

Appearing in various Dutch, German and French scientific publications, the three recently acquired articles show the international interest and controversy in this puzzling creature. There are no known Australian holdings either for the articles or its journals.

  • Joan Calkoen, 'Beschryving van den Ornithorhynchus paradoxus of zonderbaar zoogend vogel-bek-dier van Nieuw-Hollandia' in Natuurkundige Verhandelingen van de Bataafsche Maatschappy der Wetenschappen te Haarlem, d.2, stuk.1 (1803), contains an early description of the platypus with the author referring to Blumenbach's article published in 1800 which gave its scientific name. Calkoen states he received another specimen, the first to arrive in Holland. He compares his specimen with Blumenbach's description.
    http://nla.gov.au/nla.aus-vn4592819

  • Jan van der Hoeven, 1802-1868. 'Mémoire sur le genre Ornithorhinque' (Ornithorhynchus Bl.), in Nova acta Leopoldina, t.11 (1823), is a 21 page article with plates written by a Dutchman in French and published in a German serial.
    http://nla.gov.au/nla.aus-vn4592944
  • H.-M. Ducrotay de Blainville (Henri-Marie Ducrotay).
    Lettre de M.H.D. de Blainville à M. le rédacteur de l'Echo du Monde savant, au sujet de l'ornithorhynque. Paris, Imprimerie de Decourchant, [1835 or 1836]. Originally published in Echo du monde savant, t.1, nos 46, 47 (1835).
    An early offprint without plates on the classification of the platypus in the form of a letter and conceived as a response to Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. The author outlines his position taking into account all the work of the main figures with professional and searching notes on the works of Maule, Saint-Hilaire, Owen and others. http://nla.gov.au/nla.aus-vn4583967

With so many platypuses turning up at once one wonders what the collective noun for a group of platypus is? An Internet hunt was uniformly unsuccessful until the Australian Platypus Conservancy revealed what they thought it might be, but seeing as platypuses are not known to live in groups, they may never be given an ‘official’ collective noun of—a paddle of platypuses. www.platypus.asn.au/RIPPLES33.html.

Erica Ryan, the new Manager of Australian Collection Development, approved these acquisitions and is delighted to have strengthened the basis from which researchers can continue their work on Australia’s iconic and puzzling animal. Erica, who has worked at the National Library for almost 20 years, has wide-ranging experience in acquisitions, collection management and delivery. In continuing to develop the Australian printed collection, she is keenly interested in ensuring that the Library’s collection continues to be well known and widely accessible.

Wanda Horky
Australian Collection Development