The spiny anteater is the common name for the echidna, a mammal native to Australia and New Guinea.
The spiny anteater is the common name for the echidna, a mammal native to New Guinea and Australia. The spiny anteater is similar to its distant cousins, the North American anteaters, in that its diet consists primarily of insects. Unlike other anteaters, the spiny anteater is a monotreme, which are egg-laying mammals.
The name of the echidna derives from Greek mythology. Echidna was a half-human, half-serpent mythological monster. She was a rival of the Greek gods and was considered the progenitor of many mythological monsters.
Unlike other anteaters, the spiny anteater is a monotreme, which are egg-laying mammals.
The spiny anteater gets its name from the hundreds of spines that cover its body, making it look like a hedgehog or porcupine. One of its distinguishing features is its long, slender snout, and there is a species called the short-beaked echidna, which has a smaller snout. The snout houses an elongated, sticky tongue, which it uses to catch insects such as ants and termites. The snout serves as a mouth and nose and has no teeth.
Echidnas are stocky, powerfully built burrowers with compact limbs and formidable claws. An echidna excavates ants and termites and logs to find its prey. Like its cousin, the platypus, it is aided by its ability to use its snout to sense electronic pulses from its prey. This type of electroreception is also common in sharks and eels.
The spiny anteater and the platypus are the only known monetrems. An echidna lays eggs that remain inside the mother’s pouch, similar to those of a marsupial, for about 10 days. After the egg hatches, the baby spiny anteater remains inside the mother’s pouch for six to eight weeks. When the young echidna is old enough to leave the pouch, the mother prepares a den for it to stay in while she forages. She will return to the den to nurse the baby every few days.
A female monotreme produces milk, but she produces it through openings in the skin and not through the nipples like other mammals. She has a couple of spots on her skin through which her mother’s milk flows and which can be accessed by young echidnas. She is weaned at around seven months of age and begins to forage on her own.
Based on fossil records found in Australia, other species of monotremes are thought to have existed, but are now extinct. Evidence suggests that monotremes arose in Australia and crossed Antarctica into what is now South America. As of 2011, monotremes were not believed to naturally reside outside of Australia or New Guinea.