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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.
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 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.
The long snout proves essential for the echidna's survival because of its ability to get in between hard-to-reach places and scavenge for smaller insect organisms such as larvae and ticks. Along with this snout, they have a specific evolutionary adaptation in their tongues for snatching up various earthworms, which are its main type of food source.
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.
Zaglossus attenboroughi, also known as Attenborough's long-beaked echidna or locally as Payangko, is one of three species from the genus Zaglossus that inhabits the island of New Guinea. [3] It lives in the Cyclops Mountains , which are near the cities of Sentani and Jayapura in the Indonesian province of Papua .
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 nocturna is a moray eel found in the eastern Pacific Ocean, in the Gulf of California and around Peru and the Galapagos Islands. [1] It was first named by Cope in 1872, [1] and is commonly known as the freckled moray or the palenose moray. [2] It was discovered that Echidna nocturna and Muraena acutis are the same species. [3]