Not a good day to be a mammal ...

... 1 in 4 mammalian species in danger of becoming extinct.

The new report updates the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species, which overall includes 44,838 species, of which 16,928 are threatened with extinction. Of these, 3,246 are in the highest category of threat, critically endangered, 4,770 are endangered and 8,912 are vulnerable to extinction. The IUCN estimated that 76 mammal species have gone extinct since 1500.

That's a staggering number, and it's due primarily to man's own actions.

"Within our lifetime hundreds of species could be lost as a result of our own actions, a frightening sign of what is happening to the ecosystems where they live," added Julia Marton-Lefevre, IUCN director general. "We must now set clear targets for the future to reverse this trend to ensure that our enduring legacy is not to wipe out many of our closest relatives."

The word for today is: Conservation.

The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is one odd duck ...

... or maybe that's "one odd reptile", or "one odd marsupial"? Who the heck knows? Well, we all do now, thanks to the genome of the platypus being sequenced. First link is to a New Scientist article, the second is to a commentary by Nature magazine where the peer-reviewed manuscript is located.

Taken from the conclusion of the manuscript:

Since its initial description, the platypus has stood out as a species with a blend of reptilian and mammalian features, which is a characteristic that penetrates to the level of the genome sequence. The density and distribution of repetitive sequence, for example, reflects this fact. The high frequency of interspersed repeats in the platypus genome, although typical for mammalian genomes, is in contrast with the observed mean microsatellite coverage, which appears more reptilian. Additionally, the correlation of parent-of-origin-specific expression patterns in regions of reduced interspersed repeats in the platypus suggests that the evolution of imprinting in therians is linked to the accumulation of repetitive elements.

Translation: The platypus is obviously a mammal, but they are mammals which are much more primitive than just about every other mammalian species known to exist today, with the lone exception of the spiny anteater (echidna). Studying the genome of the platypus will give us important clues as to how the other mammals evolved.