I am swamped at present and have not had time to discuss the recent publications about the platypus genome. I had planned to wait and to talk about some interesting aspects, but the headlines are just too crazy to ignore. Fortunately, I believe Nimravid will be covering it soon and John Timmer gives a reasonable introduction. Some of the nonsense is from press interpretation, but some I think relates to the generally poor grasp of evolution that I see in many genomics articles. Phylogenetic fallacies aplenty.

By far the worst headline-

Gene map proves platypus is part bird, mammal and reptile (USA Today, reposted uncritically at RichardDawkins.net)