These platypuses have the most unique breeding habits.
Their reproduction involves lactation, which requires the mother to absorb milk after hatching and grow up. However, platypus babies are not viviparous, but hatched from eggs laid by the mother.
In nature, only reptiles and birds lay eggs. At the same time, only mammals are viviparous. This makes the classification of platypus awkward. They are neither reptiles nor mammals. They are completely unacceptable. It is quite difficult for these explorers to use the existing animal classification standards to measure the current species.
Later, they discovered the fossils of this species and found that they lived in the age of dinosaurs and were part of the evolution from reptiles to mammals. That is, they had already lived in South America at least 65 million years ago, relying on primitive The closed environment of the jungle survives and reproduces, maintaining the appearance of the species during evolution.
All in all, from then to now, only the body shape and teeth have deteriorated, and everything else remains the same.
Yue Guanchao listened to Song Siyuan's words and chewed his teeth: "Song Qianjin, you mean this thing is an ancient creature? But it is completely different from the platypus you described. Just the body hair covering its body is different."
Song Siyuan nodded: "The difference in body hair can only be regarded as individual differences. At least the biological characteristics of this thing are exactly the same as the platypus. This thing is probably a platypus. The abnormal body hair should be the same as other animals. The genes have been changed."
"Then, what does this mean?" Xu Xiake and everyone were confused.
Her eyes became serious: "This problem is huge. In the past, we only knew that Shennongjia was affected by the twelve soul-catching bones and fish pendants, so that everything here has lost its original alienated genes. If this is the case, it will only How could a species like the platypus, which has been missing for tens of millions of years, evolve within the original biota?"
Song Siyuan had already noticed something strange, and her face became serious: "It's like these foxes and dragons can only change in the direction of alienation, instead of degenerating into an intermediate species between mammals and reptiles like the platypus. This To be honest, this species should not exist in nature at all. Even in South America, the platypus was preserved under extremely special circumstances."
"What do you mean?" Yue Guanchao asked curiously, sensing what she was thinking.
Song Siyuan said resolutely: "I guess that these species were affected by those things, not alienated at all, but slowly degenerated, and finally showed the characteristics of a mixture of plants and animals. This means that everything in Shennongjia is degenerating into animals and plants. The direction of symbiosis changes, whether it’s humans or animals.”
"If this is the case, then it is completely understandable. Whether it is axi or these other animals, they already have some characteristics of plants."
After listening to Song Siyuan's words, everyone looked at the many species outside the curtain again and felt extremely sad. The final outcome of the creatures in Shennongjia was probably like Axi's corpse, which completely turned into dead creatures and merged with the forest, forming a Animal and plant symbionts.
During this process, the characteristics they showed were that plant organs appeared on their bodies, or they degenerated into some ancient species.
Xu Xiake asked again: "Then, why is this happening? If it is degeneration, shouldn't it degenerate back to the appearance of their ancestors? I have never heard of any animals whose ancestors are trees?"
Song Siyuan explained: "You are indeed telling the truth. The ancestors of these earth species are not trees, but the ancestors of plants are plants. This abnormal degeneration will inevitably be accompanied by genetic alienation. These alienated genes will merge with trees, and eventually Degenerate into a plant symbiont.”
"To put it bluntly, the genes of animals were first alienated by those soul-stealing bones, and then merged with plants, and then started the process of degeneration."
Yue Guanchao narrowed his eyes: "So powerful? It feels like there are two big hands controlling all the species in Shennongjia. Could they be from Guifang?"
When he listened to Song Siyuan's introduction, he felt that such a big thing was both the degeneration of animals and genetic alienation. This definitely did not happen naturally. Someone must be manipulating this situation.
Song Siyuan shook her head: "I don't think so!"
Yue Erpao said: "Why? If not them, who else has these abilities? Only the Guifang people have the twelve soul-catching bones. This thing may be just like the tiger talisman. I don't know what kind of weird smoking stone it is. "
Song Siyuan knew that they didn't understand, so she explained: "If the alienation of living things is controlled by people from the ghost side, then why is it that even Rao Axi, who is a ghost side, is affected? You can't, they don't even spare their own ethnic group, If they have to alienate into a community of trees, they know clearly that these symbionts are degenerated, so why are they still willing to degenerate the group?"
"Only evolution can be considered beneficial to the ethnic group. With something like this that is obviously degenerate, it is impossible for the Guifang people to actively harm their ethnic group."
Xu Xiake asked: "Then I don't understand. What do you mean besides the Guifang people in Shennongjia, who else has the ability to control these?"
"Of course it's a giant!"
Song Siyuan's eyes lit up when she mentioned this name. It was obviously a serious answer, not a deliberate joke.
Yue Guanchao twitched his eyebrows: "No, you are bullying us because we are uneducated. You didn't repay us just now. The Jurao tribe has become extinct. Why did another giant come out?"
She nodded: "I'm right. Nowadays, the giant tribe has indeed died out. However, when the Onifa people came, maybe the giants still existed. Even if there are not many in number, at least the Onifa people had contact with them."
"Are you so sure?" Yue Guanchao questioned.
"Yes, I am particularly sure of this."
Song Siyuan nodded towards them: "Think about it, since we entered the Shennong Sheji Temple, there have been giant statues in the courtyard. When we entered the vicinity of Guiyulin, the Guifang people even sculpted giant statues in the cave. This is obviously They regard giants as ancient gods, or they believe in giants."
“There’s a lot of room for interpretation.”
She paused and said in a mysterious tone: "I have to tell you a story first... a story about the sailing period."
During the Age of Discovery, many Westerners from the Old World coveted overseas treasures and were willing to seek new opportunities in the untrodden New World.
In this case, a profession was born in the Old World, pirates!
These pirates would first accept funding from the royal family or nobles, and then drive ocean-going ships along the coastline to find treasures in the New World. In the process, they would have to burn, kill and plunder to satisfy the fire cost of the full ship. At the same time, they would plunder After returning, he had to share the large amount of treasures equally with the nobles who funded the voyage according to the contract, so as to maintain the nobles' funding for them.
When a ship was passing through South America, its hull hit a rock and ran aground on the beach. Everyone on board was trapped in the shoals near the South American islands.
They thought the ship would be stranded here until they starved to death due to exhaustion of supplies. Little did they know that there were some indigenous people living among these islands. After they discovered the giant ship, they brought a large number of indigenous people to surround the ship.
Fortunately, there was a linguist on board the ship, and he could tell at a glance that they were the Mayan indigenous people of South America. The linguist happened to know the Mayan language, and after talking to these indigenous people, he made these indigenous people put down their murderous intentions and understand. They had no ill intentions, they were just stranded on the expedition ship.
After that, these people were brought into the tribe by the Mayans and lived with the Mayans for a period of time. At the same time, they did not forget to repair the ships. As long as they found materials, they would send them to the vicinity of the giant ships so that they could be used to repair the cabins.
In the process of living with the Mayans, all the crew members of the giant ship inevitably had to come into contact with the indigenous people. They not only taught the indigenous people how to use guns and make tools, but also brought them methods of weaving fabrics and cultivating crops. Technology is taught to them, and the rest of the knowledge is imparted to them almost without reservation.
This was completely impossible during the voyage. In the past, these sailors would have looked down upon the indigenous people at all. When they saw the indigenous people on the ship, the only thing they would do was to shoot them, or tie them into slaves and sell them Go to the Old World to make a profit.
These Mayans were able to do this good deed entirely because they helped the sailing crews and found materials for them to repair the hulls.
For the indigenous people, they are just primitive tribes cultivating slash-and-burn farming. Obtaining these technologies is equivalent to giving them many more skills to survive than other ethnic groups. This knowledge will bring about amazing changes to these indigenous people, and will eventually make the ethnic group continue to grow. , defeat other tribes and become the overlord near the islands.
After that, the repair of the giant ship was completed, and these crew members also said goodbye to the indigenous people and entered the sea to continue sailing. About thirty years later, another fleet appeared near the island. When they went to the island to observe the situation, they discovered a special phenomenon.
The indigenous people in other places were completely hostile when they saw them, and some of them even threw arrows at them. Instead of showing any hostility, the indigenous people on this island made some very respectful gestures towards them. , it looks like they are performing some kind of religious ritual.
This situation shocked them greatly!
As they learned more, these crew members discovered that the indigenous tribes here were completely different from other tribes!
These indigenous people not only made bows and arrows, guns, but also farming tools. They began to open up farmland and used tools to cultivate intensively to harvest various fruits and food crops. The unused food was also stored and used as seeds for the next year. The body is covered with a layer of simple clothing.
More importantly, these people have learned to build houses and bunkers, and have also begun to train soldiers for combat and make unified weapons.
Then, they followed these indigenous people into the tribal temple. In the tall temple, there was a giant ship made of wood and straw. Standing on the hull of the ship, even if it was treated religiously, it could be seen that those people were someone The crew of the sea ship!
Only then did he realize that these indigenous people regarded them as gods on the ship!
They also understood that the indigenous people would develop a completely different culture. The reason was that they were instilled with knowledge that did not belong to them by the "sailor gods". This allowed the indigenous people to form a belief in sea ships as totems, which has been passed down to this day. .
