Original subtitles

How they managed two small animals from opposite corners of the world

savanþilor broke renowned reputation

And also change our understanding on the evolution?

I was lucky enough, in one way or another,

met some of the most charming creatures on our planet ...

... And some I found very interesting.

Some of these creatures we know them for centuries.

On others I have recently discovered.

In this series, their share your story

And will reveal why are curiosities of nature.

David Attenborough curiosities OF NATURE

In this episode, we explore the story of two animals

that sparked a huge shock in the scientific world and beyond.

One is a frog that became the epicenter of a scientific debate

And generated false accusations of the early 20th century.

The other is an animal of Australia

which stunned the great thinkers in Victorian Europe

And it has generated many question whether it is real or not.

The PÃCÃLEALÃ?

When the first Europeans arrived in Australia,

The animals were shocked over that time.

Nothing in Europe is not comparable with strange herbivorous,

þopãiau on the plains and in some pockets tighten hauling chickens.

Kangaroos were some ciudãþenii,

But another creature and drew attention strangest first colonists.

Living on river banks and swim in the water.

Receive these Europeans who saw him told him mole of water.

Name not last long.

In this box

lies one of the first platypus specimens seen outside Australia.

He was sent to England in 1798

by Captain John Hunter, governor of New South Wales.

This small animal sparked a storm in the scientific world

And changed his career and reputation

some of the thinkers of the era.

Platypus appears to be a mixture of different animals,

part bird, beak, part mammal fur.

When Charles Darwin first encountered one in the wild, he was amazed.

He wrote, "Certainly, the two creators diferiþi worked together."

The task of describing the first naturalist George Shaw returned platypus,

working in sections of the British Natural History Museum,

And assessed with great caution to.

This is the first edition of a magazine called "Natural variations"

that occurred a few years after his examination

And contains an article about it,

but also a beautiful picture of the animal,

and at the end of Article wrote, "on a subject so extraordinary,

"A degree of skepticism is not only necessary but also praise,

"And must mention that almost do not believe what they see,

"out of respect for this animal beak structure."

It is said that Shaw was determined to ensure

That is not the victim of an elaborate hoax,

so he cuts behind the beak

to be sure not sewing any counterfeiter.

In the late 18th century, the world is open.

Travellers returning from overseas with all kinds of minunãþii.

Among them specimens of creatures

that people think are myths,

and husband-bell and sirens.

They were certainly spell in parts of different animals.

It is understandable why Shaw had doubts

on the authenticity specimen or fur.

Despite his doubts, he decided to give it a scientific name,

platypus, meaning "flat feet".

There knew that a cockroach had already received this name,

And a few years later another taxonomist gave him a new name, more suitable,

Ornithorhynchus, or "bot-the-bird".

But the platypus is still the name used by many people.

What kind of creature was it?

George Shaw believes is due mammal fur.

"All mammals are fed with the first period of their life,

'milk produced by the mammary glands of mothers. "

Could an animal but with a beak large flat suck?

Some savanþi think such a thing is impossible,

And under no circumstances believed

platypus and monkeys that belong to the same group of animals.

But the perception has changed.

At age 30, George Shaw described the platypus,

un German naturalist, Johann Meckel,

made this wonderful collection of anatomical studies.

Detailed and meticulous work of Meckel

It helped to identify the true nature of this animal.

Here...

we can see a drawing of a male platypus,

which shows clearly his clutches.

Meckel described and simple glands

under the thick fur of female platypus,

suggesting that secrete milk glands.

It could be a doubt that these glands,

but even so savanþi few have challenged the Meckel

And they have suggested disperaþi,

that milk secreting glands but not a lubricant.

Today we know that Meckel was right,

And sometime I could introduce an optical probe into the lair of a platypus

And I saw a female who breastfeed and the baby.

Yes, here.

It is milk.

Milk is a perfect food.

Provides crºterea chicken with everything needed,

And only mammals produce milk.

In most mammals milk passes through the nipple,

but this primitive mammal simply seeps through the skin.

Biologists 19th handy lacked such means.

Must clarify the biology of this strange Australian mammal

using some leftovers from a dead specimen ago.

At 40 years after the discovery of the platypus,

a young anatomist, which will become a titan of 19th century science,

joined the debate.

This is a statue of Richard Owen.

Owen was a great man,

founding director of the Natural History Museum in England.

It was said in jest that has a head so big that he needed two hats.

Platypus has become a central element in Owen's career.

His work linked to this little creature,

It helped him to be elected to the prestigious Royal Society,

an exclusive group of savanþi and thinkers.

Owen had an edge over its European peers.

Australia was an English colony

And he used his contacts to get new specimens.

Finally, two youngsters arrived platypus

And it became clear they could suck smoothly.

Yet they had not bill that would have prevented to do so.

So we agreed that baby platypus, chicken any mammal,

They are brought up with milk.

But the biggest mystery of the platypus was still unsolved.

The animal lay eggs like reptiles or birds,

or birth live young?

Owen was central to the debate.

These jars contain several bodies platypus împuºcaþi

And trimiºi the museum to be Examine Richard Owen.

Determination to demonstrate whether present or not eggs

It led to the deaths of several platypus.

Australian Aborigines state firmly that lay eggs

but that was not enough for Owen.

He knew better than any aboriginal.

He admitted that the eggs could remain inside the body

And there so chicks hatch are born alive,

but more than that he could not accept.

They were sent and eggs.

Some were false and others owned by ºerpi.

They're going to pass several decades until the platypus mystery to be solved.

It became the focus

the largest scientific debate in the Victorian era.

The species have evolved or were created?

Darwin's theory developments suggest that species can change over time,

so it may appear an intermediate form that lay eggs and have fur.

But it was too much even for the minds of Owen.

In 1884, over 80 years

the examination of the first specimen platypus by George Shaw,

William Hay Caldwell arrived in Australia on a scholarship from the Royal Society.

One of its aims was to solve the problem eggs.

After a few months in Queensland and with the help of local aborigines,

He managed to find the answer.

He shot a female egg immediately after tighten lodged in burrows,

And a second egg ready to get out of it,

And they look so.

Finally were visible evidence that the animal lay.

He sent a telegram of scientific meetings in Montreal.

It was short, to the point.

"Monotremes oviparous, ovum meroblastic. ''

These four words, iniþiaþii in science,

platypus lays eggs meant that

and egg yolk consisted of a single large,

just like birds.

Finally the mystery was solved.

Richard Owen, who refused to believe that a mammal could lay eggs

He is turning 80 years

And it was not as appreciated as the beginning of his career.

Platypus helped him build a reputation and,

but now the conundrum of how reproduction of this creature has proved that wrong.

It is something extraordinary when you are thinking that this little animal has confounded and confused

many lie-lit 19th century Europe.

It was not a scam but a curiosity like never seen.

Natural curiosities continue with another story about forgeries

while we uncover the mystery broaºtei midwives.

Platypus lays eggs that was something incredible Victorian era.

But evolution showed more unusual reproductive strategy,

And the early 20th century,

Anatomy of a certain amphibian triggered a controversy

which, as in the case of the platypus has led to accusations of deception.

This is the story broaºtei midwives.

The frog is native to Britain not midwives.

It was introduced a century ago

And then spread throughout England.

Its natural habitat is Europe, from Germany to Spain,

And in 1920, their mating habits have made sensation in the media.

Research how the male body broaºtei

changes depending on the environment

It has led some to believe that it is possible to obtain a race of super-humans.

To understand why, you must know first

makes the turtle midwives to be different from other broaºte.

Amphibians are among the first animals with backbones that colonized land.

Since then occupied almost any habitat,

from the deserts and mountains jungle.

Although they spent so much time on land,

broaºtelor most need water to reproduce,

whether it's about a vase or a lake.

Pairing waters is a delicate business.

Males have a special adaptation,

black warty some swelling on their wrists, called perniþe nupþiale,

allowing them to set good partner during sex.

After the female produces the eggs, the male sperm and tighten issue departs.

And did the job.

The midwives frog is different.

The male has perniþe nupþiale on the wrists.

For that do not mate in water, but on land.

The female produces eggs, and he takes them around his legs,

through a movement that can be compared

a man trying to put his pants and without having to use their hands.

Midwife male is not female.

Broaºtelor midwives like to live in places with less water.

After the male managed to eggs and înfãºoare a string around his legs,

usually hide under a rock with adequate moisture.

Can be up to 150 eggs

And lurk up to two months during their development.

Then, before the eggs hatch,

goes in search of water where tadpoles to come out.

Mormolocii majoritãþii broaºtelor

matures in a few weeks.

Not the frog and midwives. At her last much longer.

They often can spend even winter as tadpoles,

And perhaps this is why tadpoles broaºtei midwives are some "monsters".

Broaºtele are commonly used in biological studies

because they are easy to keep,

and the different stages of their development are easily noticed.

So it is not surprising that the behavior of midwives broaºtei

He attracted the attention of many biologists.

One of them was Australian scientist Paul Kammerer,

who worked in Vienna in the early 20th century,

and his discoveries brought him fame.

The frog in question has become an obsession that haunted until the end of life.

Kammerer was strongly influenced

the great French zoologist Jean-Baptlste Lamarck

and published the theory in 1799,

according to the characteristics of an animal accumulated during life

They can be inherited by its offspring.

For example giraffe, who get to high,

the shoots of the treetops,

while, has elongated neck muscles

And this feature has been inherited by the offspring,

from generation to generation.

Lamarck's theory was rejected

Charles Darwln proposed another evolutionary mechanism,

based on an animal's genetic change.

Kammerer wanted to prove that Lamarck was right.

But giraffes were not ideal for animal experiments

need something that can be kept in the laboratory and reproduce quickly,

And attention was drawn to the frog midwives.

Kammerer was fascinated

The unusual mode of reproduction of this broaºte.

Why a male, as this carries the eggs around the legs,

And if this be changed?

And it questioned whether broaºtei biology is related to the environment,

which is arid.

Kammerer decided to check what if keeps frog

in a warm, moist, with access to a pool with cold water.

His work has lasted several years and has required several generations of tadpoles

but eventually noticed some changes.

Some males have abandoned their eggs on standing Carat

And deposited them directly in water.

After several generations,

Kammerer has managed to change the turtle midwives

a land animal that reproduces in one that reproduces in water.

The most important breakthrough came after continued to reproduce these broaºte.

It noted that the wrists of male broaºte warty structures have been developed,

nupþiale other similar perniþelor broaºte,

used by males to females while they fix fertilize eggs.

His work suggests that,

changing environment in which he lives,

broaºtei can change body

The changes that will be sent to the following generations.

Kammerer's work took place at the end of World War I,

And political movements of the time

Scientific discoveries just exploit.

Despite the fact that the subject was a small frog,

Some saw an opportunity to use his research beyond the laboratory.

He was employed by the New York Times on the second post of Darwin.

Some newspapers carried away,

Kammerer suggested that his findings can be applied to humans.

Specifically his research could help to create super humans.

Whether he likes it or not, Kammerer was now under the spotlight.

He toured Europe and America.

At Cambridge, Department of Zoology has used its achievements

And one of tadpoles exposed to Kammerer.

But not everyone was convinced.

An American named zoologist GK Noble

He wrote an article in the publication "Nature", where it disbanded on Kammerer.

Noble considered one of tadpoles

And he said that perniþele nupþiale are false,

They were produced by injection of ink.

Kammerer a negat.

He said someone has modified its copies to discredit.

But his reputation was destroyed.

At six weeks after the article in Nature that accuse him of deception,

Kammerer wrote a letter to another a prestigious scientific journal.

Here is an excerpt of what she wrote.

"Based on the situation created, say,

"I have not been involved

"in forging specimens,

"And I consider myself an honest and accept your decision.

"But I can not accept the denigration of my work for a living,

"And I hope to be brave enough and strong

"put an end to my life."

Shortly after writing the letter,

committed suicide near his home.

If Kammerer's suicide

It was due to the failure of his experiments

Certainly we do not know.

He had problems in personal life.

Give probail

labor scandal has weighed enough.

After the death of Kammerer

It was found in the wild a specimen of male frog with perniþe nupþiale midwives.

Now some believe savanþi

that the environment can influence how certain genes behave,

And that these genes can be passed next generations.

Perhaps frog midwives already has genes that allow the growth of these structures,

but they triggered only under certain conditions.

That proves that Kammerer was right?

No one has ever managed to repeat Kammerer's experiments,

so we are not sure whether or not the results falsified,

or simply was a mind ahead of his time,

beyond the capacity of understanding of savanþilor of his time.

What is certain is that,

how some species inherit certain characteristics

It is more complex than was thought at the time.

Broaºtei midwives and the platypus lives

They have disrupted science for some time.

But in the end, both creatures have helped

to understand better how animals evolve.