Consider the Platypus: Evolution through Biology's Most Baffling Beasts

by Maggie Ryan Sandford, Rodica Prato (Illustrations)

Consider the Platypus explores the history and features of more than 50 animals to provide insight into our current understanding of evolution. Using Darwin's theory as a springboard, Maggie Ryan Sandford details scientists' initial understanding of the development of creatures and how that has expanded in the wake of genetic sequencing, including the: Peppered Moth, which changed color based on the amount of soot in the London air; California Two-Spotted Octopus, which has the amazing ability to alter its DNA/RNA not over generations but during its lifetime; the miniscule tardigrade, which is so hearty it can withstand radiation, lack of water and oxygen, and temperatures as low as -328°F and as high 304 °F;
and, of course, the platypus, which has so many disparate features, from a duck's bill to venomous spur to mammary patches, that scientists originally thought it was a hoax.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Nature, Animals, Biology

272 pages, Hardcover

Published August 27, 2019

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun and informative book on different species and the lessons they tell about evolution. Apparently billed as young adult, it’s not really much less rigorous than many pop sci books. Though you shouldn’t expect her to deep dive into any topic, it is indeed a primer into many ideas in genetics and evolution, but there’s just enough depth that you’ll probably learn something.

In theory I liked the author’s idea of a layout with an underlying theme and several vignettes related to it that tell some evolutionary lesson. However the execution was so so. Some chapters were robust and interesting and a few were … that’s all?

Also, there were two information pieces that irritated me. Firstly, in one section the author explains the ancestor of all domestic cats is still alive. In another she seems to confuse speciation and says ‘if they evolved from x, then x wouldn’t be here.’ Huh??? The brown bears that lead to the polar bears would beg to differ. She also says that dinosaurs aren’t birds but are bird cousins. If that’s true then everything I’ve read or seen in a documentary is wrong?!

You’ll still find a lot to like in this little book and you will probably learn some interesting factoids about animals. It’s bite site vignette nature means putting it away is easy; this can be good or bad in that the book was a little hard for me to finish, but you don’t struggle to read it.

It’s a good and fun palate cleanser book, but not my favorite.

[Petr · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It presents three coherent stories of animals and their evolution. It carefully introduces new words from the field and makes learning about evolution fun. As far as I can tell, as a non biologist, non of the simplifications were harming the accuracy of the message and it seemed to me the opposite was true as already the start of the book challenges our preconceived ideas about DNA and evolution and species. I liked also the reoccurring dialogue with Darwin which paid him homage while also showing that even his genius had limitations (although often given by the technological limitations of his time).

[Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is FASCINATING.

Firstly. It's a rad size, shape, layout, illustrations are great and a lot of thought has been put into this book to make it as accessible and readable as possible. It's a bit of a struggle when you like to read on your side while lying in bed but we dealt with it.

The readability of this book is important, if you're not a science person like me than you really appreciate that the author takes time to introduce various scientific terms slowly throughout the book and in relation to what you are reading about whichever particular animal the focus is on.

Fantastic and informative.

[Taveri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to give the one star due to the subtitle "Evolution Through Biology's Baffling Beasts".  The book offered no insights as to how the various animals mentioned achieved the unique features they had.  Sandford, the author, did call upon "Convergent Evolution" thirty to forty times to explain similarities in different animals.  Giving something a label doesn't explain anything.  In a concept like evolution (change happening by itself) convergent evolution may have happened once or twice > not hundreds of times.  Something is going on and its not evolution.

Another annoying aspect was the use of her "Fam-O-Meter" to guage DNA similarties between beast of the moment (chapter) with humans.  It would have been an interesting comparison but in many cases they were just guesses.  And it wasn't clear if she was measuring just genes or the whole genome.

There was an interesting component of mentioning Darwin's take on each creature in the book.  A person believing in Evolutionary Theory might have given this four stars.  I did find it an enjoyable read and learned new things.

· platypus mammaries are nippleless

· polar bears are sleek for swimming and grizzlies heavy set for fighting; mix them and you get grolers (hybrids)

· baleen whales may have been hybridizing for across species for centuries

· the four species of giraffes haven't interbred for two millenia and their necks are used for fighting; and they hum.

· as horses adapted to eating tough grasses, their teeth became stronger and longer

· butterflies are technically moths; there are 160,000 species in all.  The oldest known protomoth dates to 200 mya

· ever since we split from mice, humans have seen most of their genes go towards the neocortex, the front area of the brain that (we think) controls decision-making, reasoning, risk assessment and social maneuvering.  So far humans are the only species to exhibit schizophrenia and bipolar disorder

· dolphins have been recorded making gd using tools
· a study compared genomes of three differant body types: manatee, orca and walrus and found the body-making genes were practically the same

· somehow crows share information after learning how to make tokens for a vending machine where new crows would show up and quickly manufacture tokens
· baby birds need to be taught how to fly

· we can build muscle from eating meat [as a vegetarian i'm not pleased]

· hatchling hoatzin have foreclaws on their wings that disappear by adulthood; they are used to crawl up trees when they fall into the water from their nests
· hoatzins, hooved ruminants and leaf eating monkeys all have the ability to digest leaves, but in three differant ways
· around 65 mya a massive "evolutionary" burst occurred > a bird big bang

· all cats on Earth are descended from five mothers, ten thousand years ago

· "hypercarnivory"is a good name for a band [author's sense of humour]

· last common ancestor of fruit fly and us at 782.7 mya [!]

· HOX genes control show up in most (bi-lateral) animals and control the same functions in the same order

· Analagous genes are chunks of DNA that didn't come from the same place but serve a similar purpose
· Homologous genes came from the same place but may not serve the same purpose

· there's really not a not going on to being an animal than what a sponge has going on; they sprit from us before we split from jellyfish and anemones; sponges don't have muscles but they have genes that look like genes for coding muscles
· comb jelly are often mistaken for jellyfish; the latter are radially symmetrical whereas the former have spiral symmetry like a yin-yang symbol (not a valetine)

· an early version of the modern lungfish shared an ancestor with modern land animals

· American Clawed Frog laid eggs like crazy when injected with pregnant woman's urine; it was an early pregnancy test indicator

· all bird genomes are relatively small, about one billion base pairs
· Zebra finches exposed to traffic noise lost telomeres faster than those in quieter environs (they had shorter lifespans)

· 165-180 mya terrestrial animals diverged into metatherians and group that became placental mammals; early relatives of placentals were eutherians
· the proto-oppossum developed two key factors regarding milk: antimicrobial effects hindering pathogens and probiotic effects favouring beneficial microorganisms (though milk emerged much earlier in the platypus)
· opposum genomes lack a number of non-coding "junk" elements, that must have helped mammals become what they are; 95% of innovations in the genomes came after the split

· different species of sloth have differantly adapted vertebrae, some having more neck vertebrae than others

· author suggests replacing "survital of the fittest" with "keep animals weird"

· mice have FOX genes (coding for vocal communication) just don't know what they are doing with it

· bonobos have tiny leg muscles previously thought to only be in humans
·bonobos and chimps share 99.6% of genes (0.3% less than we share with Neanderthals); curiously though about 1.6% of the 98.7% overlap, we share with bonobos, we share only with them (and not with chimpanzees)
· bonobos share three variations of a gene that codes for a protein that helps immune cells recongize viruses (to attack them); it is shared by the other apes but not the variations
· bonobos tend to be sharing and cooperative while chimps are better with tools and spatial reasoning (and more aggressive)

· reason for animals' unique features is due to a complex and fine tuned calculus of their genomes (and not due to a single mutation)

· chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese are more like dinosaurs than other birds

· the rate of molecular evolution in crocodilians is slower than in mammals; it may relate to long time between generations; the former experienced sharp decline 11 mya (during the most recent [?] ice age)

· barn owls have ear flaps like mammals;. wings and feathers are silent in flight; face, with uniquely asymmetrical eye sockets and ear holes, is specially shaped to guide sound into ears

· there are over 35,000 species of spiders (and only 4,000 mammals {of which 1,000 are bats}), broken into: 5500 jumping spiders, 4500 dwarf spiders, 2400 wolf spiders and a few thousand web spinnners
· outside of arachnids the next relative is the fruit fly with similar mandibles; split from ticks 450 mya; have a great deal of repeated DNA and transposons
· each one of its eight legs has eight parts
· spiders develop mid section first with all legs and head coming together at once (vs insects: head first, then hindquarters, then thorax with first set of legs, then second, then third, and abdomen)
· a spider boom occurred 100 mya, same time as an explosion of nonflying insects
· synthethetic spider silk has long been a holy grail of engineering;. but even though it contains a great number of repeated sequences it is incredibly long and complicated; there may be as many recipes for spider silk as there are species of spiders

· the aye-aye is one of a 100 species of lemur; its nipples are near the groin area; tfir middle finger is espacially long and heavy and uses that finger, which can turn 360°, to dig out prey in wood it has chewed
· the aye-aye's rate of change in its genome is fairly slow compared to other primates, mice, dogs etc; they also have a lower genetic diversity

· ratites are flightless birds that include ostrich, rhea, elephant birds and kiwis; DNA wise they are closely related to elephant birds and ostrich (but not emus); in addition to losing flight they lost the ability to see color, and that may be linked to its great sense of smell; the kiwi's nostrels have migrated to the tip of its long beak; the kiwi has more genes associated with smell than aven the barn owl; it is the only ratite that is nocturnal (which may explain the color loss); its long thin shafted feathers became shaggy and soft, hanging roose like fur, which helps to disguise it in the underbrush; it's a bird that looks like a mammal

· not having teeth is a turtle thing from way back; they diverged from archosaurs 225 mya; prehistoric giant turtles (when a lot oee animals were giant) were twice the size; a turtle's shell is an extension of its spine; tortoises have slow myosins (opposite from fruit flies and mice); they evolved slowly, one third as fast as humans; they can survive on little oxygen

· around 85 mya a third major split (after montremes and martupials, then proto-elephants/manatees/sloths/armadillos) happened in the mammal world; one lineage became mice and primates; the other included proto-carnivores, proto-odd-toed ungulates (horses & rhinos), proto-even-toed ungulates (giraffes, cows, whales and dolphins) and bats.

















Typed using EasyKeyB



More later

[Bill T.]

I find this book difficult to review, but I think that's basically my fault: When I first got this book from the library, I noticed the "Young Adult" sticker on it and thought, "oh, well, this isn't going to be much." Sadly, I think that influenced how I read the first two-thirds of the book, not taking it seriously and skimming big chunks. It didn't help that the book is composed of a whole bunch of largely-disconnected descriptions of various species -- understandable, but it makes it hard to read the book as a book.

Then, I let the book sit around for a time while reading other things. When I came back to it, my reactions were all along the lines of, "Oh, this is interesting...I didn't know that...oh, how can that be?"

So, all that unnecessary and self-indulgent history out of the way, I should actually write a review: I found the book very interesting, once I let myself get interested in it. The structure was a bit choppy, by design, which might not really be a bad thing. The writing gets a bit "hip" in places, but Sanford wanted to keep the text light and easy-to-read, and she succeeded admirably in that regard. By the end, I was learning a lot of neat stuff and wanted to keep reading -- a section on the starfish would have been a great complement to the octopus!

I'm hard pressed to even rate this book, given how hard it was for me to review it. I guess I call it four stars, but I'm not going to tell goodreads that lest it influence the recommendations and start recommending more YA books. If your young teenager is at all interested in biology, though, get her this book!

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love being an armchair scientist and can't get enough of books like this, that jump two-footed into really complicated subjects and scratch the surface enough that you feel like you've learnt something but whet your appetite for more. This book is gorgeous, with some beautiful hand-drawn illustrations that give the book an old-world Darwin-esque feeling. It's really well written, often using humour to lighten what is a bafflingly complicated topic but not to the detriment of the science - each chapter is based around a different animal and gradually builds up a new scientific vocabulary that would be prohibitively complicated if disseminated in one go to the casual reader (i.e. me).
Fantastic, I really enjoyed this!

[Dan Upton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly, the book was just what I was expecting: stories about some of the weird ways evolution has taken things and how some animals are just, well, weird. I think the book could've used another pass or two on editing, though. There are a couple places where it feels like the animal sections were written separately and then somebody just went through and assembled it later -- this leads to, say, using the word "hydrodynamic" numerous times before only finally defining it toward the end of the book, or acting like we haven't read the phrase "convergent evolution" a dozen times before it is referenced as "a strange phenomenon known as convergent evolution" in the very last animal section.

[Christine Einsel Haba · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly one of the most enjoyable books I have read in a long time. Combining such fascinating science with amusing, cheeky commentary made this otherwise very informational/jargon-filled book an absolute pleasure. I’ve been reading this to myself, to other people, and even to children! Each animal will have you asking, “what the f@$&!” and wanting to learn more. I borrowed this book, but will be making it a purchase.

[Happy Booker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book one can open to any page and discover many interesting facts about the animals we share with on our planet. It helped that I read Darwin’s Theory years ago but I don’t think it’s necessary in order to read this book. I found it at our local library and enjoyed it so much that I bought it! A great read for parents to share the interesting facts with their children. I fully recommend this book.

[Brendan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a fun science book for adults that explains a lot of concepts related to evolution through descriptions of various animals. My one complaint is some concepts were not defined as well as others which was confusing for someone like me who is interested in science but doesn’t have the background. The art in this book was a real strong point for it and the author has a great voice. I would definitely read more from her.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and fun read, occasionally a bit repetitive. It was definitely a rabbit hole book. I probably spent more time on the internet looking and reading more about the animals that were highlighted than I spent reading the book! Certainly a great book for anyone who are ready for an update to their high school biology course.

[Jack Phoenix · Rating 4 out of 5]

If the wit throughout doesn’t win you over, then Sandford’s ability to simultaneously convey how dreadfully complicated evolution is while making the topic easily digestible will.

[William Nicholls · Rating 2 out of 5]

Egregious errors of fact aren't acceptable in a book build out of pity factoids. In the section on humans (page 71, hard cover), the author presents a set of "begats" — outlining key divergences of animal lineages along the human phylogenetic tree. This section has massive errors. Take this paragraph for example, "Before that, about 100 million years ago, the proto-vertebrates-and-invertebrates diverged from the proto-fungus, bacteria, virus, archaebacteria lineage. Together, these vertebrates and invertebrates are called eukaryotes. Everyone else is a prokaryote or archaebacterium (an entirely third category of life, discovered in the early 2000s)." 100 million years ago was in the Cretaceous, the last period where non-avian dinosaurs walked the earth. The divergence of prokaryotes and eukaryotes is estimated to be 2.4–2.2 billion years ago. The author's date is literally less than the rounding error for the number science provides. Science communication can benefit from style, but when the substance is ridiculously wrong, style counts for nothing.

[Angela Doyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book for, say, a high schooler who really enjoyed their biology class and wants to know more. It helps to explain evolutionary concepts through the lens of bizarre facts about various animals. I already knew the concepts, but the book was still fun to read, due to the incredible facts and the author’s fun writing style.

The only reason I didn’t give the book 5 stars is because there are several errors in editing in the book which could be confusing to someone who doesn’t realize they’re reading something incorrect.

[Ming Suan Ong · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a kids’ book! I picked it up for my kids and could barely get through it myself. It’s a beautiful book and very informative but not being a scientist I found it hard going. There are interesting bits especially towards the end - tardigrade and axolotl especially (I thought they were imaginary creatures) and the bits on humans and Neanderthals but there were lots of entries whose inclusion made me wonder. Not for light reading despite the way it looks - you do have to commit to it.

[Pandaduh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Next time you run into a person who hates cats tell them we share more DNA with cats than dogs! This was a fun book to browse through and I probably learned more about our animal relatives then I did in any biology textbook.

I vaguely remember cringing in parts about farmed animals and how they were described as "surviving" because they were part of our food chain (at least for the cow?). But I no longer have the book in front of me to verify that.

[Brian Bohmueller · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an awesome and accessible primer on evolution, except...... I take away a star because of numerous random errors in the book that a good editor should have caught. The worst I saw...citing the metric conversion of the giraffe's height as 14.9 to 16 meters (that's nearly 50 ft). Sadly these errors might give fodder for evolution deniers to challenge the veracity of the book and otherwise sound science.

[William Schram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Consider The Platypus is a book about evolution. Author Maggie Ryan Sandford explores the ideas of evolution by examining fifty animals and finding their relationships to human beings. Sometimes, evolution discussions lead to theology, which is acceptable, I suppose.

Each of the animals covered has a piece of art or photos connected to them.

I enjoyed the book. Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.

[Emily Kleinhenz · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look into evolution through animals that seem to defy evolution (or are just weird). This book is structured in such a way that anybody can understand and have fun reading it. The book has places where it describes basics, as it is meant for even people with the most basic understanding of science to comprehend what is written. I truly enjoyed it

[Donna Luu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, very interesting factoids about evolution and animals. I found the fam-o-meters useless and the "on the river" bits annoying, but the writing was generally entertaining and sometimes sassy.

[Charlie Newfell · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars - A combo book: part coffee table book, part trendy science, part serious science book, it is an easy read, broken into small, digestible chunks. I found some interesting information, but overall felt like it missed the mark by trying to be too many things.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skim read, is a more accurate description. Short narratives about animals and their biological relationship to humankind. These are fun, educational, and easy to take in one narrative at a time. I simply ran out of time to read it cover to cover.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book takes some of the world’s most interesting creatures and discusses their place in the evolutionary “river of life” and explaining some of the amazing adaptations of these creatures. Al of it done in a very readable and often humorous way. Lots of cool illustrations too.

[Cyndie Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully illustrated exploration into some of the more important and interesting leaps in evolutionary history. I definitely waited to long to get back and write this review but still remember the book fondly.

[Maxine]

Gorgeous coffee table book for anyone with an interest in animals and evolution. Not actually a children’s book, but super accessible, with engaging writing and really interesting info.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a quirky little coffee table book with quick hits on different kind of animals and their evolutionary uniqueness. Not a cover-to-cover read, but cute.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Close to a 5.
Picky, because the two references to NZ mammals were incorrect.
Otherwise, a fascinating read.

[Rubaiyat · Rating 3 out of 5]

+ Lots of cool facts
- Some of the explanations are hard to understand
- Not much depth on any topic

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delicious romp through nature’s weirdness.

[Maggie Bailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The ultimate combination of hilarious and educational.