Family TACHYGLOSSIDAE

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Family TACHYGLOSSIDAE

Compiler and date details

2010 - Stephen M. Jackson, c/- Queensland Museum, Brisbane, Queensland

31 December 1998 - J.A. Mahoney (1988); updated by Barry J. Richardson (1999), Centre for Biostructural and Biomolecular Research, University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, NSW, Australia

Introduction

This family includes two extant genera. Although both species occur in New Guinea, today only one is found in Australia. Pleistocene fossil remains of Zaglossus and Megalibgwilia have been taken from a number of deposits around Australia, and Zaglossus features in Aboriginal rock art in the Nothern Territory. In 2012, Helgen and colleagues (Helgen et al. 2012) reported on a specimen of Zaglossus bruijnii, collected in 1901 from the Kimberley in north-western Western Australia and now in the Natural History Museum in London. It appears, then, that Zaglossus has become extinct in Australia in relatively recent time. Both a flea Echidnophaga liopus Jordan & Rothschild and a tick, Amblyomma australiense Neumann were taken from the specimen.

The body of the echidna is covered with thick hair interspersed with sharply pointed spines. The legs are short and all digits are equipped with strong claws; those of the manus are spatulate. The snout is elongated, naked and the two nostrils are located on the antero-dorsal end. The eyes are small and directed anteriorly. The jaws lack teeth, the mouth is small and the tongue is long and narrow. The diet is insectivorous, composed largely of ants and termites.

Echidnas are solitary. Although they are powerful diggers, they do not burrow in the conventional head-first manner, but rather "sink" into the soil. A single egg is laid, probably directly into the pouch. Testes are internal and there is a single orifice for the passage of eggs and waste products.