Long-beaked echidna

Long-beaked echidnas
Western Long-beaked Echidna (Zaglossus bruijni)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Monotremata
Family:	Tachyglossidae
Genus:	Zaglossus Gill, 1877
Type species
Tachyglossus bruijni Peters and Doria, 1876
Species
Zaglossus attenboroughi Zaglossus bartoni Zaglossus bruijni †Zaglossus hacketti †Zaglossus robustus

The long-beaked echidnas make up one of the two genera (Genus Zaglossus) of echidna. Echidna is a spiny monotreme that lives in New Guinea. There are three living species, and two extinct ones.

Echidnas are one of the two types of mammals that lay eggs.

Species

Zaglossus attenboroughi

• Habitat: regions of New Guinea at higher elevation than highland forests
• Era: the present
• Status: Endangered

Remarks: Species described from one sample only. May be endangered, or locally extinct. See Sir David's Long-beaked Echidna

Zaglossus bartoni

• Habitat:on the central cordillera between the Paniai Lakes and the Nanneau Range, as well as the Huon Peninsula
• Era: the present
• Status: Endangered

Remarks: see Eastern Long-beaked Echidna

Zaglossus bruijni

• Habitat: highland forests of New Guinea
• Era: the present
• Status: Endangered

Remarks: see Western Long-beaked Echidna

Zaglossus hacketti

• Habitat: Western Australia
• Era: Upper Pleistocene

Remarks: This species is known only from a few bones. At a metre long, it was huge for an echidna and for monotremes in general.

Zaglossus robustus

• Habitat: Tasmania
• Era: Pleistocene

Remarks: This species is known from a fossil skull about 65 cm long.

References

• Flannery, T.F. and Groves, C.P. 1998 A revision of the genus Zaglossus (Monotremata, Tachyglossidae), with description of new species and subspecies. Mammalia, 62(3): 367-396

Other websites

• EDGE of Existence (Zaglossus spp.) - Saving the World's most Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) species

• Long-beaked echidna from ARKive
  

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• A pretty good summary, including references on animalinfo.org