The platypus is so weird that scientists thought the first specimen was a hoax

When British scientists first laid eyes on the platypus in the late 18th century, some of them thought the specimen — sent back from its native Australia — must be a hoax. "It naturally excites the idea of some deceptive preparation by artificial means," English zoologist George Shaw wrote in 1799.

Shaw was the first to publish a scientific description of what turned out to be a very real creature.