Long-beaked echidnas1
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 echidnas, spiny monotremes that lives in New Guinea. There are three living species, and two extinct species in this genus. Echidnas are one of the two types of mammals that lay eggs.

Species

Zaglossus attenboroughi

Main article: Sir David's Long-beaked Echidna

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

Zaglossus bartoni

Main article: Eastern Long-beaked Echidna

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

Zaglossus bruijni

Main article: Western Long-beaked Echidna

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

†Zaglossus hacketti

• Habitat: Western Australia
• Era: Upper Pleistocene
• Fossil
• 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
• Fossil
• 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

See also

• Fossil Monotremes

External links

Wikispecies has information related to:

Zaglossus

• EDGE of Existence (Zaglossus spp.) - Saving the World's most Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) species
• ARKive - images and movies of the long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus spp.)
• A summary, including references on animalinfo.org