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Opalios was nicknamed "echidnapus" (a portmanteau of "echidna" and "platypus") in the press following its description due to the specimen's similarities to both extant monotreme lineages. [ 2 ] Several other monotremes are known from the Griman Creek Formation, including Dharragarra and Parvopalus —which were described in the same publication ...
Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) Family Tachyglossidae Genus Tachyglossus (short-beaked echidna) Short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) Genus Zaglossus (long-beaked echidnas) Western long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bruijnii) Eastern long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bartoni) Sir David's long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus attenboroughi)
This contrasts with the modern platypus, where adults are entirely toothless. It has been theorized that the loss of teeth in the platypus was a geologically recent event, occurring only in the Pleistocene (after over 95 million years of tooth presence in the ornithorhynchid lineage) after the migration of the rakali ( Hydromys chrysogaster ...
The echidna spurs are vestigial and have no known function, while the platypus spurs contain venom. [42] Molecular data show that the main component of platypus venom emerged before the divergence of platypus and echidnas, suggesting that the most recent common ancestor of these taxa was also possibly a venomous monotreme. [43]
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The short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus), also called the short-nosed echidna, is one of four living species of echidna, and the only member of the genus Tachyglossus. It is covered in fur and spines and has a distinctive snout and a specialised tongue , which it uses to catch its insect prey at a great speed.
Like the closely related platypus, echidnas have spurs on their hind legs. Unlike the platypus, echidna spurs are not venomous. [5] All eastern long-beaked echidnas start with spurs on their hind feet and spur sheaths that cover them. Females typically lose their spurs later in life while males keep them. Females are also generally larger than ...
Rheobatrachus, whose members are known as the gastric-brooding frogs or platypus frogs, is a genus of extinct ground-dwelling frogs native to Queensland in eastern Australia. The genus consisted of only two species, the southern and northern gastric-brooding frogs, both of which became extinct in the mid-1980s.