At first, scientists thought platypuses were fake
When we were kids, platypuses were the first animals we learned about. Most people think they’re weird as heck; They have a beaver-like tail, they lay eggs like reptiles, their bill is shaped like a duck’s, and they can swim because of their otter feet.
In fact, platypuses are so strange that when scientists first discovered them, they thought the animal was a hoax. Some even went as far as saying the species might have been artificially created by humans.