The duck-billed platypus is one of God’s unique wonders on earth. Found in eastern Australia, it is a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal with a bill like a duck. It is one of the few species of venomous mammals; the male has a spur on its hind foot that delivers a venom capable of causing severe pain in humans. When European scientists first encountered the preserved body of a platypus in 1799, they thought it was a hoax, composed of animal parts sewn together.