English Zoologist and Ornithologist John Gould notes in his book The Mammals of Australia:

On commencing a history of the Ornithorhynchus, the mind naturally reverts to the period of its first discovery; a period so recent that the animal was unknown to Linnaeus and the older authors. It was in 1799 that a description of this singular quadruped first appeared in the “Naturalists Miscellany” of Dr Shaw; about this time also the Koala, Wombat, Kangaroo, Emu, Menura, Cereopsis and Black Swan were made known. These important discoveries gave an extraordinary impulse to the study of natural history, and set the whole scientific community wondering at the paradoxical creations of the distant country known by the name of Australia”.

He then proceeds to mention George Bennett’s “interesting account of his observations of the animal in a state of nature”. Bennett writes:

Those shy creatures, the “Water Moles”, the Ornithorhynchus Paradoxus of naturalists, known also as the Duck-Billed Platypus….. Perhaps no animal on its first introduction to Europe gave rise to greater doubts as to its classification, or excited deeper interest among naturalists…. than this paradoxical creature, which, from its external appearance, as well as internal anatomy, may be correctly described as forming a connecting link between the bird and the quadruped…. The body is depressed like the mole, otter and beaver.