InsideOUT: ROSTRUM CASTORIS AVIFORME

InsideOUT: ROSTRUM CASTORIS AVIFORME

DAVID CAMPBELL
Mon
18
Mon 18 Aug 10:00 AM to 10:00 AM

CNR MACQUARIE AND ELIZABETH STREET
General Admission

Check out the latest installation in Creative Hobart's new public art platform InsideOUT, a cube gallery setup outside Hobart Town Hall.

David Campbell
Rostrum castoris aviforme (“bird-like beaver-snout”) 
Discovered 2025

In 1799, George Shaw, Keeper of the Natural History Department of the British Museum, was presented with an unlikely specimen. The creature appeared to have the face of a bird and the body of a beaver. He examined the skin looking for stitches, as his initial thought was that someone was trying to prank him. After verifying it was a real animal, he published the first scientific description of it, naming it Platypus anatinus or “flat-footed duck”. 

Rostrum castoris aviforme shows the skeleton of a distant relative which retained certain traits that the platypus has since lost. Unlike its modern descendant, it has the head of a beaver and the body of a bird. Its discovery underscores how little we truly know about these enigmatic animals.

This work is presented by City of Hobart. 

CNR MACQUARIE AND ELIZABETH STREET

CNR MACQUARIE AND ELIZABETH STREET Hobart , Tasmania, 7000