On at the same time
On next
InsideOUT: ROSTRUM CASTORIS AVIFORME
DAVID CAMPBELL
Tue
19
Tue 19 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.
