How did the echidna get its name?

Answer 1

Hi, Cremedelacreme,
"Tachyglossus aculeatus" - "Echidna" - "Spiny anteater"
Echidnas (pronounced "E-kid-na")
The Name "echidna" : "Echidna" derives from the : Latin word for "viper,"
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Range : "Australia", "Tasmania", and "New Guinea"
Habitat : "scrubland" and "montane forest"
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Class : Mammalia (Mammals)
Order : Monotremata
Family : Tachyglossidae
Genus and species :
• Tachyglossus aculeatus (short-beaked echidna)
• Zaglossus bruijni (long-beaked echidna)
Length : 14 to 30 inches (35 to 77 centimeters), depending on species
Weight : 5.5 to 22 pounds (2.5 to 10 kilograms)
Life span : unknown in the wild, up to 50 years in zoos
Gestation : 3 to 4 weeks
Number of young at birth : usually 1, rarely 2 or 3
Size at hatching : 0.47 inches (12 millimeters), 0.02 ounces (0.56 grams)
Age of maturity : unknown
Conservation status : long-beaked echidna is endangered
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Fun facts :
An echidna does not have ear flaps like we do. Its ears are large, vertical slits just behind its eyes. It has an amazing sense of hearing.
• It is difficult to tell a male and female echidna apart just by looking at them. Both sexes have a pouch on the belly. The San Diego Zoo’s echidna was thought to be female for many years until a veterinary exam was performed. Now “Erma” is called “Victor”!
• The taxonomic family name for echidnas, Tachyglossidae, means “fast tongue.”
• Egg-laying mammals are called monotremes... There are only three kinds of monotremes in the world : the long-beaked echidna, short-beaked echidna, and duck-billed platypus....
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The "echidna", is the most widely-spread native Australian mammal... However, since it leads a cryptic a net solitary lifestyle, little is known shout population dynamics or density... The face of Australia has changed immensely in the past 200 years.. and we have no idea how these changes have affected the echidna populace in different parts of the country... "Kangaroo Island", offers a field biologist such as myself unique... valuable opportunities... There are still large areas of near pristine land (there are no rabbits on the island), as well as man-altered terrain surrounded by native scrub... The "echidna", inhabits many types of habitats.. and seems to have adapted to minor changes in its environment... We have the chance to examine the echidna's interaction with various types of environment here... The island is also free of foxes as an introduced predator.... However feral cats do pose a threat. The only known natural predator on the island is the Rosenberg's goanna....
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No one, has ever followed individual animals long enough in the field.. to answer basic questions such as 'When is an Echidna sexually mature?' In 1881, George Bennett proposed that the "echidna", may produce one offspring only every other year... To date no one has proven or refuted his theory... Our long-term studies on the Kangaroo Island echidna, will resolve some of these long standing questions.... We also have no idea about parent/offspring relationships. ...For example, what happens to the young after weaning'! Does the mother teach it what to forage for, and where?.. Must it leave the territory of the parent and explore new grounds? How long does an echidna live in its natural environment? (One echidna lived for 47 years in a zoo in the United States.) ..Do they increase their population numbers only very slowly, because they do live so long and because each animal needs a large area in which to forage and live?.. When we know the answer to some of these questions, then we may begin to understand how the "echidna", one of the oldest living mammals on the earth, has been able to survive in our changing world....
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The echidna is classed, as 'common because it can still be found throughout Australia... The question is, for how long?.. Let the "echidna" be an example.. of only one of the very many things which we do not thoroughly understand, but take for granted in Our daily lives... Take some time to look and actually observe what you are seeing... Don't be surprised when you discover that the most seemingly banal organism which you encounter is an integral part in the web of life....
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The "echidna", is shy and moves slowly and carefully, but can usually be approached by treading softly... It is solitary for most of the year but at mating time several males may follow a female.... Their activity patterns differ with location and temperature.. in the warmer parts of "Australia", it is completely nocturnal, spending the daytime resting out of the heat... They typically shelter in rotten logs, stumps or burrows, or under bushes... In more temperate areas foraging occurs around dusk, while echidnas in southern Australia are often active during the day, particularly during winter...
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Hydra :
This monster was also the spawn of "Echidna" and "Typhon", a snake with numerous heads that were sometimes said to be human as well.... It was brought up near the source of the river Amymone in order to provide a test for Heracles.... The breath of the Hydra was so venomous.. that anyone who approached it would die, even if the monster was sleeping... Heracles thought to destroy it by cutting off its heads, but as soon as he did so more heads grew in their place... Therefore Heracles seared the bleeding necks of the monster with a torch in order to prevent growth that way... According to some legends one of the heads was immortal, but Heracles cut it off anyway and buried it deep in the earth... Heracles also dipped his arrowheads in the Hydra's blood and made them extremely poisonous... The term hydra is commonly applied to any complex situation or problem that continually poses compounded difficulties....
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In the most ancient layers of :"Greek mythology" Echidna (ekhis, meaning "she viper") .. was called the "Mother of All Monsters". "Echidna", was described by : Hesiod as a female monster spawned in a cave, who mothered with her mate "Typhoeus or Typhon" every major monster in the "Greek mythos"..
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Thanks, for the question!;)

My regards!

Answer 2

Where Does The Echidna Live

Answer 3

Echidnas also referred to as "spiny anteaters", are the only surviving monotremes apart from the Platypus with the four surviving species, native to New Guinea and Australia, all belong to the Tachyglossidae family.

The echidna is named after a monster in ancient Greek mythology. The name 'echidna', was inspired by a monster "Echidna" from classic Greek Mythology who was considered the mother of all monsters - half nymph, half serpent, she was a beautiful ageless woman from the waist up, but bellow the navel, she was a snake. Due to the echidna's ( "spiny anteaters"), strange mesh of mammalian and reptilian traits, the name was chosen for this strange little spiny creature.

Echidnas are small mammals that are covered with coarse hair and spines resembling both the anteaters of South America and other spiny mammals like hedgehogs and porcupines.Their elongated and slender snouts functions both as the mouth and nose.They got tiny mouth and a toothless jaw.They have very short, strong limbs with large claws and are powerful diggers.They feed by tearing open soft logs, anthills and the like, and using their long, sticky tongue which protrudes from their snout to collect their prey.

Apart from the Platypus, the four species of echidna are the only egg-laying mammals. The female lays an egg twenty-two days after mating and deposits it directly into her pouch. Hatching takes ten days; the young echidna, called a puggle, then sucks milk from the pores of the two milk patches (monotremes have no nipples) and remains in the pouch for forty-five to fifty-five days, at which time it starts to develop spines. The mother digs a nursery burrow and deposits the puggle, returning every five days to suckle it until it is weaned at seven months.♥

Answer 4

Echidna is a Dharuk word meaning "pointy skin".

Answer 5

Echidna(ΕΧΙΔΝΑ) is a type of poisonous snake in Greek