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A porcupine's colouring aids in part of its defence as most of the predators are nocturnal and colour-blind. A porcupine's markings are black and white. The dark body and coarse hair of the porcupine are dark brown/black and when quills are raised, present a white strip down its back mimicking the look of a skunk.
The male echidna's penis is 7 centimetres (2.8 in) long when erect, and its shaft is covered with penile spines. [29] These may be used to induce ovulation in the female. [30] It is a challenge to study the echidna in its natural habitat, and they show no interest in mating while in captivity. Prior to 2007, no one had ever seen an echidna ...
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.
Echidna's family tree varies by author. [4] The oldest genealogy relating to Echidna, Hesiod's Theogony (c. 8th – 7th century BC), is unclear on several points. According to Hesiod, Echidna was born to a "she" who was probably meant by Hesiod to be the sea goddess Ceto, making Echidna's likely father the sea god Phorcys; however the "she" might instead refer to the Oceanid Callirhoe, which ...
They vary in size from the relatively small long–tailed porcupine with body lengths of 27.9 to 48 cm (11.0 to 18.9 in), and a weight of 1.5 to 2.3 kg (3.3 to 5.1 lb), [2] to the much larger crested porcupines, which are 60 to 83 cm (24 to 33 in) long, discounting the tail, and weigh from 13 to 27 kg (29 to 60 lb).
All About the Native Porcupine Native porcupines are the second largest rodent in North America, second only to beavers. They are about two or three feet long, and weigh between ten and thirty pounds.
The long-beaked echidna's limb posture is sprawled, similar to extant reptiles like lizards and crocodilians. Although the stances between the animal groups are similar, the way the limbs move are very different between the clades. The echidna swings its limbs at a 45 degree angle while a lizard's is more horizontal.
It’s not clear why the predators and prey decided to live in such close quarters with each other.