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The diet of some species consists of ants and termites, but they are not closely related to the American true anteaters or to hedgehogs. Their young are called puggles. Echidnas evolved between 20 and 50 million years ago, descending from a platypus-like monotreme. [4] This ancestor was aquatic, but echidnas adapted to life on land. [4]
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]
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 ...
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 team also found an entirely new genus of tree-dwelling shrimp, countless new species of insects and a previously unknown cave system.
All long-beaked echidnas were classified as a single species, until 1998 when Tim Flannery published an article identifying several new species and subspecies. [4] These species were then recognized based on various attributes such as body size, skull morphology, and the number of toes on the front and back feet. [4]
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The trampled grass and dung attract termites from the Odontotermes, Microtermes, and Pseudacanthotermes genera. [36] On a nightly basis they tend to be more active during the first portion of night (roughly the four hours between 8:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m.); however, they do not seem to prefer bright or dark nights over the other. During adverse ...