Definition of "duckbilled platypus" [duckbilled platypus]

• Small densely furred aquatic monotreme of Australia and Tasmania having a broad bill and tail and webbed feet; only species in the family Ornithorhynchidae (noun)

WordNet. Princeton University. 2010.

• "More recently, just as this book was going to press, I showed this section to Professor Hodgkin, and he told me the most recent data of which he was aware: the duckbilled platypus genome, which was sequenced in 2008 the platypus was a good choice, because of its strategic position in the tree of life: the ancestor that it shares with us lived 180 million years ago, which is nearly three times as long ago as the extinction of the dinosaurs."