Platypus
Ornithorhynchus anatinus (Shaw, 1799)
Ornithorhynchidae
(Alecto Facsimile Edition - Plate 12)

BAU14

$750.00

14. Platypus. Ornithorhynchus anatinus (Shaw, 1799) [W,P&M]
335 x 510 mm
A platypus was captured at Port Jackson in July 1802 and September 1803. By then, however,
the first preserved specimen had already reached England and been named by George Shaw of
the British Museum in 1799. In Bauer’s painting there is a frilly edge to the bill where it joins the
body which is not normally present in the living animal. This effect is frequently observed in
preserved skins in which the naturally soft, rubbery bill has shrunk and hardened presenting an
unnatural frilly appearance.
Today, the platypus is found in eastern Australia and Tasmania.
S&P : 13-14; W&M : 317, 336; W,P&M : 86-7; Poignant : ”fig.73”