Long-beaked echidna

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.

Long-beaked echidnas[1] Temporal range: Miocene to present
Western long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bruijni)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Synapsida
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Monotremata
Family:	Tachyglossidae
Genus:	Zaglossus Gill, 1877
Type species
Zaglossus bruijni Peters and Doria, 1876
Species
Zaglossus attenboroughi Zaglossus bartoni Zaglossus bruijni †Zaglossus hacketti †Zaglossus robustus

Echidnas are one of only two types of living 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

1. Groves, C.P. (2005). "Order Monotremata". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.

• 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.) Archived 2007-12-25 at the Wayback Machine - 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