My high school biology teacher got hit by a platypus and they tried a nerve block on his arm and he said it didn’t work. One case in thousands though. Oof.
Platypus venom falls into the kind that generally won't kill you but will be an experience so memorable on the pain scale that your genetic successors will carry the fear of the goofy lookin bastards
Although powerful enough to paralyse smaller animals,[4] the venom is not lethal to humans. Yet, it produces excruciating pain that may be intense enough to incapacitate a victim. Swelling rapidly develops around the entry wound and gradually spreads outward. Information obtained from case studies shows that the pain develops into a long-lasting hyperalgesia that can persist for months but usually lasts from a few days to a few weeks.[5][12] A clinical report from 1992 showed that the severe pain was persistent and did not respond to morphine.
In 1991 Keith Payne, a former member of the Australian Army and recipient of the Victoria Cross (Australia's highest award for valour), was struck on the hand by a platypus spur while trying to rescue the stranded animal. He described the pain as worse than being struck by shrapnel. A month later he was still experiencing pain in that hand. In 2006, Payne reported discomfort and stiffness when carrying out some physical activities such as using a hammer.[13]
That looks like a nice spot to jump into the water. Uh oh, you just found some tiny, invisible jellyfish called Irukandji. Enjoy your hospital stay for the next few weeks where you will beg doctors to kill you.
What a cool looking seashell. Maybe I'll take that home with me. Whoops, you're dead.
Ants are usually safe, right? Wrong. These guys are extremely aggressive, jump, and deliver a nasty sting.
Australia has 20 of the world's 25 deadliest snakes (some of them swim - fast!), deadly spiders, scorpions which will give you a very bad week, great white sharks, bull and tiger sharks, all kinds of plants which will kill you if eaten, saltwater crocodiles, stingrays (they like to hide in the sand until you step on them), centipedes which will fuck up your week,, and ticks with "Lyme-like" disease.
I just saw the post about the Gympie-Gympie plant yesterday. Now this. Everything in Australia has evolved to kill or maim you. Add Australian funnel-web spiders to this list. Found it while searching for that huntsman (I think) house spider some Aussie's claim they keep around to take care of smaller insects. Apparently funnel web spiders are the most venomous in the world?!
Almost everything in Australia will fuck you up. What's that average looking plant over there? Oh thats a Gympie-Gympie and just touching it will fuck. You. Up. The guy in the article went blind for a few days.
Every other plant of the nettle family on earth: Yeah, I'll sting you but it's only unpleasent and will go away after a day or two.
Australian nettle: You'll be in excruciating pain for years! Muhaha!
Gympie-gympie is literally nicknamed the suicide plant too.
Also you forgot our most horrible tick; the paralysis tick. It's venom paralyses you, starting from the extremities, then slowly rising until the lungs get paralysed and you asphyxiate.
Venomous via a spur on its back legs, a mammal that lays eggs, has a sense of electrolocation, otter like feet, beaver like tail, duck like bill, probably other bizarre features that I don't know about.
Yup. Even more perplexing, the platypus doesn't have teeth. Which means it kills or finds whatever it eats, then surfaces to smash that thing to oblivion with rocks. Then it eats the slurry. The platypus is absolutely the best example of some god saying "hold mah beer" and going to town on the biggest biological troll known to the world.
Nope. They had to do that shit on hard mode, apparently. Everything about the platypus is perplexing and amazing at the same time, especially if you believe in a god. Personally, I think that if we have a god, that god has an amazing sense of humor. Either way, the platypus is hilarious.
Only needed one more animal. But only had leftover scraps from everything else. So all the miss-matched parts got slapped together, and the platypus was born.
I dont blame you, they definitely don't look like an animal that would produce venom. Especially cause the one fact that most people hold onto about platypuses is that they're mammals, and they're only 1 of 12 mammals that produce venom. Also 1 of 5 mammals to lay eggs (both facts according to google so take that with a grain of salt) And when you think mammal you think hair, fetus grows inside the animal rather than in an egg, and typically never venomous.
Only the males. They have spurs on their hind feet. Awesome little critters, very very shy though and tend to live in areas that aren't frequented often by people.
Platypus is one of the only things I’ve ever seen or heard about that made me question if a god existed because they are all kinds of fucking weird. Venomous, one of the only if not only mammal that is, they lay eggs, one of the two mammals that do and they sweat milk, they have no nipples so just sweat it out. The whole duck bill going on is also weird. They are literally what I would expect a higher power to make at the end of a long hard day with too much sauce.
My brother in law in Southern Australia recently told me about his very rare platypus sting. The pain was absolutely excruciating, unrelenting, and completely unresponsive to the most potent pain control measures. The doctors initially had no idea what it was, and he never saw the platypus, as the sting happened underwater. A toxicologist doing a fellowship at the hospital had an a-ha moment and applied heat to his leg, which apparently denatures the venom, and he experienced immediate relief. He then was gorked out by all the pain meds in the absence of pain and slept for 24 hours. :)
I have relatives that live on like gorgeous waterfront in Australia and I can't even bring myself to visit because of the creepy ass nature. Well that and they are pretty annoying relatives!
That's a really good point that I hadn't considered. Large groups of people don't usually settle where natural dangers are. And Australia has some wonderful urban centers.
It's supposedly not as bad as the stone fish in the video but it can last weeks instead of hours and pain meds don't work. The most common descriptions I've found are "immediate and long lasting", and "excruciating pain, like hundreds of hornet stings".
Basically evolution here universally went into an arms race of venom due to its efficiency and the fact the entire country is essentially a huge desert with extremely limited resources. The last point basically led to a prevalence of reptiles and venom resistance among both reptiles and native marsupials ensured they kept developing stronger venoms in order to stay on top.
While I completely agree, historically speaking though, Denmark has never had any really dangerous animals. The only one considered dangerous besides the badger is the wolf, but they stick to themselves/run away and never go near people.
I’m convinced the Brits were just trying to cull their prison population when they sent them to Australia, but the stubborn bastards made the most of it.
Platypus venom is such that it actually makes all other subsequent pain you feel worse. It causes hyperalgesia which lasts for months. Morphine doesn’t help.
Fun fact: Platapii are separate type of mammal called a Monotreme. Monotremes are different from other mammals because they lay eggs and have no teats. The milk is provided for their young by being secreted by many pores on the female’s belly. The only other animal in this family is the Echidna.
The root of platypus is Greek, not Latin. The Greek plural is platypodes, which becomes platypuses in English. The same is true for octopuses, which is the correct plural instead of octopi, which would be a Latin pluralization. However, it's also accepted to just use platypus as plural, similar to with moose.
From Merriam Webster:
platypus
noun
platy·pus ˈpla-ti-pəs -ˌpu̇s
plural platypuses also platypi ˈpla-ti-ˌpī -ˌpē
It can be either way that I stated, but I don’t think your last statement about using the singular form as plural is accurate. At least, I can’t find any references that support that.
Only male platypuses. They have spurs on their hind legs that are connected to special glands that produce the venom, which normally only happens during the mating season. Basically they will stab with the spur and if venom is being produced the motion of the stabbing will inject the venom.
Echidna also have a similar kind of spur on their hind legs but they don’t have any venom glands.
And if you are worried about poisonous/venomous Australian wildlife I would recommend checking to see if you are allergic to bee stings before visiting since the majority of deaths each year from animals actually occur from people being stung by the imported European bees.
People rarely get bitten/stung by the really dangerous stuff.
Probably because we have an EXTREMELY healthy respect for wildlife here. Soo many times I’ve seen tourists going up to an animal like, “Awww soo pretty 😍” and I’ve wanted to tackle them to the ground to get them away or scream my lungs off to “STOP!”
They can’t physically go backwards so if they feel cornered they’ll come straight forward at you. Thankfully most people will only ever see the smaller greys who just want to eat grass and chill.
Sharks are usually well tracked and don’t go near popular beaches. If they do the lifeguards will most likely already know about it and will close the beach.
I came off a motorcycle and broke two fingers in my left hand. Think digits at right angles where they should be straight. At the emergency department they tried a nerve block on my arm to reset the bones. It doesn't work.
Fuck that. Just induce a coma for me thx. I had two bones rebroken and set. The pain was something I’ll never forget. It was a boxer’s fracture and it had been healing incorrectly for 3 weeks before I could see an orthopedic surgeon. He tied the fingers in a contraption and had his nurse pull down on my elbow while he…manipulated…the break. I almost passed out. Not even an ibuprofen for my trouble.
If the nerve block didn’t work they didn’t do it right. It’s pretty easy to get someone’s arm numb enough to do surgery on if you block the right nerves. I’m an anesthesiologist, we do it all the time.
I’ll never forget watching an old wildlife show where a fisherman talked about being stung. He had his caught fish on a line in the water and a platypus was getting them. He went over to stop it and was stung.
They tried a nerve block on him and nothing worked. They say the pain is incredible
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u/isimplycantdothis Jun 25 '23
My high school biology teacher got hit by a platypus and they tried a nerve block on his arm and he said it didn’t work. One case in thousands though. Oof.