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Comment on Discussion Thread đ Thursday 12 June 2025
StudChud@aussie.zone â¨2⊠â¨days⊠ago
I think Iâve 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 Iâve adhered to the marking rubric so đ¤ˇđźââď¸
Anyone want to know some cool facts about Tachyglossus aculeatus (The Short-Beaked Echidna)? đ
Catfish@aussie.zone â¨2⊠â¨days⊠ago
StudChud@aussie.zone â¨2⊠â¨days⊠ago
The maxilla and mandible of T. aculeatus is fused into a beak-like mouth. It isnât actually a beak, however, as it is made of specialised jaw bones and muscle, rather keratin coated bone (like a bird beak). They use their long tongue and long mouth to snuffle in soil for ants and termites (they are insectivores), and then use their tongue to grind up their food against a bony hard plate on the maxilla, along with a slight back and forth motion of their jaws, as opposed to the up and down motion humans do when we chew.
bacon@aussie.zone â¨2⊠â¨days⊠ago
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StudChud@aussie.zone â¨2⊠â¨days⊠ago
Their backwards facing hind feet (pointed towards the posterior of the animal/ pointed caudally) means that when they dig out their food or dig out burrows, the dirt is kicked back and away. Combined with the females backward- opening pouches (the opening of the pouch is also pointed towards the posterior) this means that dirt and soil and bugs wonât be kicked into their pouch and onto their puggle.
They also produce milk (one of the reasons they are in the Mammalia Class) via mammary glands, but they donât have nipples in their pouches; the milk serious throw the skin a bit akin to sweat
Thornburywitch@aussie.zone â¨2⊠â¨days⊠ago
Is that the Niu Gini one thatâs recently been re-discovered? I know theyâve got long beaked echidnas, but I think thereâs 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
âEKHIDNA (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 earthârot, slime, fetid waters, illness and disease.
Ekhidna was sometimes equated with Python âthe Rotting Oneâ, 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 Typhoeusâa 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.â
StudChud@aussie.zone â¨2⊠â¨days⊠ago
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 đ
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 âbackwardsâ compared to mammals causing their hind feet to point caudally!