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The female lays a single soft-shelled, leathery egg 22 days after mating, and deposits it directly into her pouch. An egg weighs 1.5 to 2 grams (0.05 to 0.07 oz) [21] and is about 1.4 centimetres (0.55 in) long. While hatching, the baby echidna opens the leather shell with a reptile-like egg tooth. [22]
During euthermia, the body temperature can vary by 4 °C per day. [81] The metabolic rate is around 30% of that of placental mammals, making it the lowest energy-consuming mammal. This figure is similar to that of other animals that eat ants and termites; [82] burrowing animals also tend to have low metabolism generally. [76]
The long-beaked echidnas (genus Zaglossus) make up one of the two extant genera of echidnas: there are three extant species, all living in New Guinea. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] They are medium-sized, solitary mammals covered with coarse hair and spines made of keratin .
The western long-beaked echidna is an egg-laying mammal. Unlike the short-beaked echidna, which eats ants and termites, the long-beaked species eats earthworms.The long-beaked echidna is also larger than the short-beaked species, reaching up to 16.5 kilograms (36 lb); the snout is longer and turns downward; and the spines are almost indistinguishable from the long fur.
It is the smallest member of the genus Zaglossus, being closer in size to the short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus). The weight of the type specimen when it was alive was estimated to be 2 to 3 kilograms (4.4 to 6.6 lb). [5] The male is larger than the female, further differentiated by the spurs on its hind legs.
The team also found an entirely new genus of tree-dwelling shrimp, countless new species of insects and a previously unknown cave system.
The eastern long-beaked echidna can be distinguished from other members of the genus by the number of claws on the fore and hind feet: it has five claws on its fore feet and four on its hind feet. Its weight varies from 5 to 10 kilograms (11 to 22 lb); its body length ranges from 60 to 100 centimetres (24 to 39 in); it has no tail.
Myrmecophagy means "ant-eating" (Ancient Greek: murmēx, "ants", and phagein, "to eat"); the related habit of termite-eating is termitophagy. The two dietary habits often overlap, as these eusocial insects live in large, densely-populated, terrestrial ant colonies or termite mounds , requiring specialised adaptations from any species that ...