For evolutionary purposes, being interesting to human beings offers a high-risk strategy for a species. If it’s too interesting it risks being hunted to extinction, but if it’s not interesting enough it risks being ignored to death. Clearly, the platypus is optimizing this sector of evolutionary space: it’s too wack (and toxic) to become a pet of the idle rich and to be ignored by scientists. So, basically, as the environment changes, the platypus’s evolutionary strategy will increasingly become disrupting taxonomies. No, I’m not joking: for some species, good PR will be the difference between extinction and survival.
(NYT)