"I several times caught this same lizard, by driving it down to a point, and though possessed of such perfect powers of diving and swimming, nothing would induce it to enter the water; and as often as I threw it in, it returned in the manner above described." (Darwin, 1839, Voyage of the Beagle).
And that was a long way from before then. But there's always something to keep it interesting. A few things that have recently come to my notice:
The platypus. A really under-studied animal, I feel. Apparently they have the sense of electromagnetic reception (like an electric eel, only they don't shock people). And if you hide batteries somewhere underwater, they will find them. Now, who thought of that; that's what I want to know. And did it involve alcohol, or were they all sober? (Anyone seen "The Day After Trinity"? Scientists can drink. And if you get them all together out in the desert to make an atomic bomb without any alcohol, they'll make their own).
Komodo dragons. Big. Scary. Ultimate feminists. Well, maybe not. But, apparently, the females can reproduce without male assistance. Recently, a female did just that. Of course, after she had the miracle babies, they had to take them away from her so that she didn't eat them (Associated Press 2007).
Reptiles. Specifically, two-headed fossils of their ancestors. Recently found in China. This phenomenon, called axial bifurcation, is not an uncommon occurence in modern-day lizards and reptiles. Occasionally it will happen in mammals, but they don't usually live. The fossil is a hatchling, either a Sinohydrosaurus or Hyphalosaurus species. As an adult, it would be about 3 feet long. The fossil was found by a local farmer and sold to a museum (Pickrell 2006, National Geographic). I can't imagine being the person to see that and realize what it was. In one interview, one of the scientists quotes his reaction as being something along the lines of "'Oh my God!'" (Ker Than 2007, Live Science)
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