Strange new forms of animals unfamiliar to European science, including the egg-laying platypus (Ornithorhynchus) [Monotremata] and the marsupial koala (Phascolarctos) [Marsupialia], were found in Australia by the Flinders expedition and drawn by the expedition's artist, Ferdinand Bauer. The expedition was wrecked on its way home to England, and the specimens were destroyed. The drawings were widely believed to be hoaxes. Note that the anatomical and reproductive oddities of the marsupial Virginia opposum (Didelphis) from North America were known to Linnaeus.