Goofy phylogeny (Score 1)

"Their genomic organization was strange and a little unexpected," says Batzer. "It appeared much more bird- and reptile-like than mammalian, even though it is indeed classified as a mammal."

Batzer is one of the researchers. He should know that in the standard evolutionary phylogenetic model, the platypus is no more closely related to birds than we are, since we and platypodes share a common ancestor that existed in the mammalian line after the mammalian line separated from birds.

While it is true that to a human a platypus looks more like a bird than does another human, it is equally true that to a platypus a human looks more like a bird than does another platypus.

And the implication that classifying it as a mammal is a mistake ("even though it is indeed classified as a mammal", rather than "even though it's a mammal") is just silly.