Short-Beaked Echidna

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Short-beaked Echidna Description Short-beaked Echidnas are covered with long, brown-black and golden spines. Under the spines, the echidna’s body is covered with fur. Its long, tubular and toothless snout is naked. The tongue is long and sticky and is around 18 cm long. Fast Facts Diet The Short-beaked Echidna is an insectivore and eats ants and termites. The echidna digs its way into ant or termite nests with its front paws and extends its long, sticky tongue into the nest. The insects stick to the tongue and are drawn into its mouth where they are crushed up. Other Names: Echidna Breeding Scientific Name: Tachyglossus aculeatus Echidnas are one of only two Australian mammals that lay eggs. The baby hatches after 10 days and is carried around by the mother for three months in a pouch-like skin fold. This baby is called a ‘puggle’. The mother carries the baby around until its Least Concern Conservation Status: spines start to develop. Extinct Threatened Least Concern Threats EX EW CR EN VU NT LC There are no significant predators of adult echidnas, but dingos will occasionally eat them. The spiny coat provides an excellent defence. When disturbed, the echidna curls Body Length: 30–45 cm into a spiky ball. When attacked, it may dig very quickly and bury itself in the soil. Weight: 2–7 kg At Perth Zoo Incubation: 14 days Perth Zoo houses a number of echidnas in the Australian Bushwalk. Perth Zoo bred its first ever Echidna puggle in 2007. It was only the ninth ever bred Number of eggs: 1 in Australia. There have been more successful births of Echidnas at Perth Zoo in subsequent years. Habitat: All habitats Distribution: Australia, New Guinea and some off shore islands Each spine is formed from a single hair. Echidnas and platypuses are monotremes. This means that they are mammals that lay eggs. Distribution.

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The Oldest Platypus and Its Bearing on Divergence Timing of the Platypus and Echidna Clades
The oldest platypus and its bearing on divergence timing of the platypus and echidna clades Timothy Rowe*†, Thomas H. Rich‡§, Patricia Vickers-Rich§, Mark Springer¶, and Michael O. Woodburneʈ *Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas, C1100, Austin, TX 78712; ‡Museum Victoria, PO Box 666, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia; §School of Geosciences, PO Box 28E, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia; ¶Department of Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521; and ʈDepartment of Geology, Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff, AZ 86001 Edited by David B. Wake, University of California, Berkeley, CA, and approved October 31, 2007 (received for review July 7, 2007) Monotremes have left a poor fossil record, and paleontology has broadly affect our understanding of early mammalian history, been virtually mute during two decades of discussion about with special implications for molecular clock estimates of basal molecular clock estimates of the timing of divergence between the divergence times. platypus and echidna clades. We describe evidence from high- Monotremata today comprises five species that form two resolution x-ray computed tomography indicating that Teinolo- distinct clades (16). The echidna clade includes one short-beaked phos, an Early Cretaceous fossil from Australia’s Flat Rocks locality species (Tachyglossus aculeatus; Australia and surrounding is- (121–112.5 Ma), lies within the crown clade Monotremata, as a lands) and three long-beaked species (Zaglossus bruijni, Z. basal platypus. Strict molecular clock estimates of the divergence bartoni, and Z. attenboroughi, all from New Guinea). The between platypus and echidnas range from 17 to 80 Ma, but platypus clade includes only Ornithorhynchus anatinus (Austra- Teinolophos suggests that the two monotreme clades were al- lia, Tasmania).
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