this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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Science Memes

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venomous (quokk.au)
submitted 1 year ago by Deceptichum@quokk.au to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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[–] antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Recently went down the rabbit hole (ok, I'm lying, I just read a Wikipedia article and one scientific study), and found out that the venomousness of the platypus has crazy implications for mammal evolution:

In spite of the rarity of venom among extant mammals, venom may be an ancestral feature among mammals, as venomous spurs akin to those of the modern platypus are found in most non-therian Mammaliaformes groups.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venomous_mammal

(The monotremes are the platypus and the echidna, which unlike the platypus isn't venomous but still has the spurs.)