Platypus from Greek πλατύπους = platys (flat) + pous (foot), PIE *pleth₂- + *ped-. The 'flat' root also gave plate, plateau, plaza, place, platform, platitude, and Plato's nickname. Shaw coined it in 1799 but the name was already taken by beetles. The animal — egg-laying, venomous, electrosensory — is stranger than its name suggests.
A semiaquatic egg-laying mammal native to eastern Australia, having a broad flat tail, webbed feet, a duck-like bill, dense fur, and venomous spurs on the male's hind legs.
Coined by the British naturalist George Shaw in 1799 from Greek 'πλατύπους' (platýpous, flat-footed), composed of 'πλατύς' (platýs, flat, broad) + 'πούς' (poús, foot). The PIE roots are *pleth₂- (flat, broad) and *ped- (foot). Shaw described the animal from a dried skin sent from Australia and was so incredulous that he physically checked the specimen for stitching,
When Shaw first described the platypus in 1799, he suspected it was a hoax — a duck's bill sewn onto a beaver's body — and took scissors to the pelt looking for stitches. The name Platypus was a taxonomic blunder: a German entomologist had already used it for ambrosia beetles in 1793. The animal became Ornithorhynchus anatinus ('bird-snouted duck-like'), but