ZOOPHILIA: Platypus Venom

From mountain-dew-loving-yuppie hydration packs to Firefox extensions to the P-P-Platypus Song, people love platypuses (not "platypi", you infants). Don't turn your backs though, kids: Your beloved platypus will gank you and your dog to death.

That's right: In addition to being one of the few egg-laying mammals, platypuses are also singular in their ability to produce venom, a peptide cocktail that also exhibits protease behavior, i.e., it digests proteins, similar to the stuff that makes your tongue feel weird when you eat a lot of pineapple because it's partially digesting your tongue. I'm told it hurts like a mother trucker.

Until relatively recently, scientists thought egg-laying mammals didn't experience REM sleep (heck, I thought they didn't until I read this old-as-heck NYT article today), but it turns out they do and science proves it, so there.

Platypuses are awesome and you should learn more:

• NPR: "Platypus Is Even More Strange Than It Looks"
• Platypus.org.uk
• G. M. de Plater, R. L. Martin, and P. J. Milburn (1995). "A pharmacological and biochemical investigation of the venom from the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus)"
• Google Books: Kant and the Platypus: Essays on Language and Cognition by Umberto Eco