MOYAL, ANN — Platypus

Allen & Unwin. 2002. Soft cover with dust jacket, 20.5cm. Book, A superabundance of detail on the biology of the platypus, which made its debut European appearance as a hide preserved in a keg of spirits-and landed smack in the middle of the scientific debate over the classification of species, confounding naturalists throughout the 19th century. In the era that was "destined to become the great century of classification and the decoding of the complex, and diversifying, book of Nature," the platypus proved a tantalizing puzzle. Moyal, scientific historian and founder of the Independent Scholars' Association of Australia, has found an object worthy of obsession in the history of the "elusive duck-bill mole." With admirable focus, she has devoted herself to teasing out the theories and general bewilderment that the platypus engendered in the European and Australian naturalist communities, and through scientists' efforts and opinions, Moyal provides a fount of information about the habits and behavior of the shy creature. reviewer says >>> "The Extraordinary Story of How a Curious Creature Baffled the World" The Australian author shows great affection for this skittish, shy mammal who has fur, lays eggs, nurses its young and has a bill like a duck. Darwin figured it out. 226 crisp pp & less than 500g to post. Excellent/None issued.