The platypus is an iconic Australian native semi-aquatic, burrowing, egg-laying mammal (monotreme) with an unusual soft-bill, webbed feet and a thick “beaver-like” tail covered in a soft fur pelt. An indigenous Australian legend details the origins of these eclectic physical features according to indigenous cultural heritage. The indigenous Australian legend retold in Aboriginal Stories by A.W. Reed, recounts the legend of shared ancient kinship between the groups of the ancestral indigenous Peoples before they possessed human form.
The legend of Platypus details an argument between the Lizards, Birds and Animals, the totemic ancestors of the indigenous Peoples. The Lizards, Birds and Animals argued over who was more ancient, more powerful and rightfully belonged in the waterhole. The culmination of the debate is the Lizards decide to take the waterhole. The Frilled Lizards use their powers to call a storm, flooding the landscape. While the Birds could fly away and larger Animals flee from the flood waters, the Platypus became trapped and drowned. After the flood and much later, the Lizards, Birds and Animals gather again and realise the few numbers of once-plentiful platypus. One of the Lizards, the carpet snake recounts the sighting of an old platypus living far away. Finally, the old Platypus travels to meet with the Peoples and he tells them of his heritage. The Platypus explains he is the most ancient of the Peoples, related to the first group, the Lizards sharing a semi-aquatic lifestyle but he also shares kinship with the egg-laying Birds, but Platypus also has a fur pelt, claiming kinship with the Animals. The legend of Platypus details the shared kinship between the different and most ancestral Totemic groups from which the later human-form ancestors claimed heritage.
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