Names Are Complicated...

A friend of mine posted a video on Facebook titled, "Animals That Act Like Dogs." The video had a duck-billed platypus swimming around in a kiddie pool. It swam over, crawled out of the pool, and landed into someone's hands. The duck-billed platypus rolled over, and the person began to scratch the belly of the little critter. Its little legs began wiggling like crazy. It was cute, and it made me laugh, but I couldn't make the connection. If you rub my belly, I like it but my legs don't wiggle. Does that mean I am not an animal that acts like a dog. Is it the wiggling of legs that makes one act like a dog? Maybe I am just over-thinking this a bit.

This event with the duck-billed platypus got my curiosity up. Why do they call it a duck-billed platypus anyways? A duck has a duck bill, but people don't call them duck-billed ducks. Then, I had the question, is there a platypus that doesn't have a duck bill? I didn't know, so I looked it up. Nope, they are one in the same. Someone just needed to complicate things and added the duck-billed part onto the name of the platypus. Which is interesting seeing that the creature has other similar body parts to other species. For instance, it has a tail like a beaver. Why not call it a beaver-tailed platypus? I guess that is the end that nobody wants to talk about.   

In my thirst for knowledge, I also discovered that a platypus is venomous. Yep, the males have a spur on there hind legs that secrets venom like a snake. So, following the above logic, why not call it a rattlesnake-legged platypus? It also has the feet of an otter. So how about and otter-footed platypus. It also lays eggs like a lizard. So why not the lizard egg-laying platypus?

Why stop there? If one must complicate things, why not just go all the way? I will contribute to the insanity and start calling the little fellow a duck-billed beaver-tailed rattlesnake-legged otter-footed lizard egg-laying platypus. Hah, put that in your keyword search. Maybe it will blow up Google. Nope, I tried it. Google showed the same results as just typing in platypus. Oh well, I guess Google knows best. Yes, that is sarcasm, but at least they didn't over complicate it. They just call it a platypus.