Date Time New insights into iconic Aussie animals The genomes of egg-laying monotreme mammals, platypus and echidna, have been published in the prestigious journal Nature. Monotremes display a unique mix of mammalian and reptilian features and form the most distantly related, and least understood, group of living mammals. Their genetic blueprint provides fundamental insights into their unique biology and into the evolution of all mammals. This milestone in genomics research was the result of an international collaboration involving Australian scientists from the Universities of Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne and La Trobe University, as well as researchers from China, Japan, USA and Denmark. The 40 researchers brought together expertise in bioinformatics, cytogenetics and molecular biology to produce and analyse the first ever echidna genome and a greatly improved, high quality platypus genome sequence.