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It was a crew of semiaquatic rodents whose wetland-building skills have seen them gain popularity as a natural way to mitigate wildfires.

This research finding casts doubt on prevailing wisdom that slow growth in living crocodiles is linked to the evolution of their sedentary, semiaquatic lifestyles.

The team found that there is a threshold between semiaquatic and fully aquatic species, and once that threshold has been passed, the aquatic adaptations are irreversible.

“This is a semiaquatic animal. It would have lived kind of like a crocodile, kind of hanging around in rivers, catching fish.”

The platypus is a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal that is native to Australia, measures a foot or two, and has webbed feet and a duck-like bill.