this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2025
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I think I've done what I can to prep for the presentation tomorrow - gonna do a few more reviews and editing (scientific names for animals should be in italics), and run through it with my partner.
I have a suspicion I may have put more info then they need, but I've adhered to the marking rubric so ๐คท๐ผโโ๏ธ
Anyone want to know some cool facts about Tachyglossus aculeatus (The Short-Beaked Echidna)? ๐
Is that the Niu Gini one that's recently been re-discovered? I know they've got long beaked echidnas, but I think there's been some developments on the short-beaked side quite recently.
He he, the actual word echidna is NOT an indigenous word - it comes from greek mythology and is the name of a goddess of chaos. quote below from theoi.com
"EKHIDNA (Echidna) was a monstrous she-dragon (drakaina) with the head and breast of a woman and the tail of a coiling serpent. She probably represented the corruptions of the earth--rot, slime, fetid waters, illness and disease.
Ekhidna was sometimes equated with Python "the Rotting One", a dragon born of the fetid slime left behind by the great Deluge. Others name her the Tartarean lamprey, and place in her to the dark, swampy pit of Tartaros beneath the earth. Hesiod, makes her a daughter of monstrous sea-gods, and presumably associates her with rotting sea-scum and fetid salt-marshes.
Ekhidna was the consort of Typhoeus--a monstrous, multi-headed storm-giant who challenged Zeus to the throne of heaven. Together they spawned a host of terrible monsters to plague the earth including the Khimaira (Chimera), Kerberos (Cerberus), the Hydra, Sphinx and the Drakon Hesperios (Hesperian Dragon).
Four other closely related she-dragons were the Argive Ekhidna and Poine (Poena), the Tartarean Kampe (Campe), and the Phokian Sybaris."
The Short-Beaked Echidna is the only native Echidna to Australia - the other 3 extant echidnas are native to Niu Gini! Thank you for the etymology! I had no idea they painted Ekhidna as such a gross sea-beast ๐
I studied the skeletal structure of T. aculeatus! They have a pectoral girdle that is really similar to the therapsids (mammal-like reptiles from the Permian/Triassic)! Shows how old of a species monotremes are! Their humerus is lateral to the body, giving them that waddle, and their tibia and fibula are "backwards" compared to mammals causing their hind feet to point caudally!