Last year we learned that climate change could soon make Australia too hot for the cold-loving, iconic platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus). Now we have word of a new threat to these unique, egg-laying mammals: inbreeding, which has put the platypuses living on two small Australian islands at enhanced risk of disease. According to research published March 28 in Ecology and Evolution and May 4 in the Journal of Heredity, the platypus populations on mainland Australia and its island state Tasmania have perfectly normal levels of genetic diversity Continue reading →