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Fresh light is being shed on the rise of mammals thanks to new clues from one of nature's oddest creatures, finds Ibrahim Sawal [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes an activity in Australia's waterways in which volunteers from various groups went searching for DNA traces of platypus. Groups involved in the search included the Moorabool Catchment Landcare Group, EnviroDNA, and Odonata. According to ecologist Josh Griffiths, platypus and fish are shedding DNA into the water in the form of skin cells, hair cells or scales. Platypus has been classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as a near-threatened species.

Presents brief news relating to several topics. Findings of research on an epilepsy patient before taking surgery; How a tooth from a duck-billed dinosaur, has changed paleontologists' view on the age at the end of the dinosaur; Information on the tropical fig tree; Details on tiny fossil sponges from south China.

Comments on the possible use of the toxin found in the spurs of the duck-billed platypus in the development of a pain killer for humans. Details on the duck-billed platypus; Reference to research by Rosemary Martin of the Australian National University; Effect of the platypus' toxins on humans.

The article reports the discovery made by Rebecca Pian of the Columbia University in New York and her colleagues of a single tooth believed to belong to the ancestor of the platypus which indicates it was used for chewing hard or bony animals such as frogs and turtles.

The article reports on the result of a study conducted by Wesley Warren and colleagues concerning the genetic make-up of a platypus. Warren's group sequenced the platypus genome and found an amalgam of reptile and mammalian features. They found that the gene sequences responsible for determining sex are more like a bird's than a mammal's.

This article presents information about the discovery of a new fossil of a semi-aquatic cousin of modern mammals called Castorocauda lutrasimilis, which lived 164 million years ago. Looking like a cross between a platypus, river otter and beaver, this ancient mammal would have been almost half a meter long from nose to tail and weighed about half a kilogram. If the date of the fossil is confirmed, it makes Castorocauda the largest mammaliaform ever found from the Jurassic period, which lasted from 200 to 145 million years ago. It also sports the oldest known fur.

The article presents information on the sex life of duck-billed platypus. The weird and wonderful duck-billed platypus just got weirder and more wonderful. These milk-producing mammals lay eggs, have a birdlike bill and a skeleton with some reptilian features. Now it turns out that their sex is determined in a unique way. In most mammals, including humans, sex is decided by the X and Y chromosomes. In birds the system is similar.

Focuses on the method of choosing which animals should be endangered or threatened in Australia, and how the perspective used is far too short-termed. Some species with historically small populations that fluctuate in size which are in less danger than other species currently numerous but in a protracted decline; Number of mammal extinctions that occurred in Australia; The importance of fossil records in deciding endangered species; The koala ve

Reports on the dispute among Australian biologists on a plan to lend two platypuses to Japan. Disagreement on whether the two will survive the experience; Display at an international exhibition in Tokyo in 1996; Loan as the first time in nearly 60 years that the animal is exported; Concern of biologists on the animals' welfare.

Reports on the discovery of a tooth from an ancient platypus in Patagonia by a team of Argentinian paleontologists, led by Rosendo Pascual of the National University of La Plata. Evidence of a monotreme living outside Australia and New Guinea; Support of the theory that Australia and South America once shared a fauna which included marsupials and monotremes; Current theories of continental drift; Living monotremes in Australia; Description of fossil forms of platypus.

Reports on proposals in 1991 for zoos in Great Britain to house platypuses in new aquarium-style displays and to export the animals in zoos abroad. Mortality rate among platypuses kept in zoos within a year of capture; Some success achieved by zoos in breeding platypuses in captivity; Implications on conservation and protection efforts for the platypus.