Hello there, lovers of the strange and unusual.  There is no place better to find strange and unusual than Australia and I’ve picked out a few examples of evolutionary diversion to share with you today.

Wombats captured my attention since I first saw one falling through a broken deck chair in Sirens.  I find them laughably cute.  They are one of many marsupials that call Australia home.  In fact, 70% of the 334 marsupial species in the world are found in Australia, near by New Guinea and surrounding islands (Wikipedia).

The strangeness of marsupials (what with half developed embryos crawling around on their parents) pales in comparison to the Platypus.   With a duck bill, beaver-like tail, and eyes like a hagfish or lampry, this egg laying mammal takes the prize for best animal mash-up, but that’s not all of the strangeness.  The Platypus hunts by electroreception, similar to sharks, has venom, and lacks a stomach.

Though not specific to Australia, flying foxes also make there home down under.  They are also known as mega bats and can have wings spans up to 2 meters or 6 feet.

Not to be outdone by warm bloods, the trees of Australia are equally strange.  A stand of Huon Pine trees in Western Tasmania are an all male clone colony in excess of 10,500 years.   It’s like the Dr. Who of trees, never sexually partnered and constantly living in new bodies of itself.  Though not of Australia I’d be remiss if I did not mention Pando, the Trembling Giant in Utah, a clonal colony of quaking aspen.

Where clone trees are cool and all (banana lovers everywhere owe their thanks), danger is much more exciting!  The Gympie Gympie tree will sting you.  It will burn you like a chemical Moriarty if you so much as brush lightly past and then it will revisit you with burning sensation over the course of years, like some horrible tactile acid flashback.