Pretty much everyone knows platypuses are weird. They have tails like a beaver’s, they lay eggs like a reptile, and they have bills like a duck’s. Though this basic platypus knowledge is part of most elementary school animal and science lessons, the truth is platypuses are WAY weirder than most of us even realize. So weird, in fact, that the first western scientists who inspected them believed them to be a hoax.
Zoologist George Shaw was the first westerner to describe a platypus, the pelt and bill of which he was sent in 1799 from Australia. Shaw tried to understand the platypus but, like many of those who studied the strange mammal after him, couldn’t shake the feeling he was being duped. Shaw believed it was very possible a person might have taken an actual duck’s bill and the pelt from an otter or a mole and sent them to England to mess with him. In fact, he even cut the skin with scissors to try and find the stitches—which, of course, he couldn’t!
According to Shaw, the creature’s duck-like bill and otter-like skin "naturally excites the idea of some deceptive preparation by artificial means.” He also drew a picture of what he believed the platypus to look like, which was surprisingly accurate for how little he had to go off of in terms of the specimen. Still, he continued to be unsure whether or not the animal was real.