Scientifically-informed and funny, a first-hand account of Australia's wonderfully unique mammals--and how our perceptions impact their future. Think of a platypus: They lay eggs (that hatch into so-called platypups), produce milk without nipples and venom without fangs, and can detect electricity. Or a wombat: Their teeth never stop growing, they poop cubes, and they defend themselves with reinforced rears. And what about antechinuses? The tiny marsupial carnivores whose males don't see their first birthday, as their frenzied sex lives take so much energy that their immune systems fail. Platypuses, possums, wombats, echidnas, devils, kangaroos, quolls, dibblers, dunnarts, kowaris: Australia has some truly astonishing mammals, with incredible, unfamiliar features. But how does the world regard these creatures? And what does that mean for their conservation? In Platypus Matters, naturalist Jack Ashby shares his love for these often-misunderstood animals. Informed by his own
Life on earth has existed for 500 million years. In that time, the evolution and natural selection of species has formed a diversity of life rich in incredible methods of survival, reproduction, and a
The present volume, the 13th in a projected 17-volume collection, contains The Inn Album (1875), a dramatic narrative involving seduction and murder, and Of Pacchiarotto and How He Worked in Distem