Quick facts for kids Long-beaked echidnasTemporal range: Miocene to present
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| Western long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bruijni) |
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Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Monotremata |
| Family: | Tachyglossidae |
| Genus: | Zaglossus Gill, 1877 |
| Type species | |
| Zaglossus bruijni Peters and Doria, 1876
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| Species | |
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Zaglossus attenboroughi |
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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.
Contents
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.
- 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
- 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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