The others are platypuses, cockroaches, and bees. Like the Platypus, the Short-beaked Echidna is an egg-laying mammal or monotreme and lays one egg at a time. The extinct species were present in Australia. The eggs hatch after about 10 days and the young, emerge blind and hairless.
The Echidna has the lowest body temperature of any mammal on earth today; Echidnas are one of only four non-aquatic species that uses electroreception to locate food. Echidna definition, any of several insectivorous monotremes of the genera Tachyglossus, of Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea, and Zaglossus, of New Guinea, that have claws and a slender snout and are covered with coarse hair and long spines.
Scientific names.
These are four species of echidna. See more. The long-beaked echidnas (genus Zaglossus) make up one of the two extant genera of echidnas, spiny monotremes that live in New Guinea.There are three living species and two extinct species in this genus.
Clinging to hairs inside the mother's pouch, the young echidna suckles for two or three months. The scientific name of the long-beaked echidna of Papua New Guinea is Zaglossus bruijni. The scientific name of the long-beaked echidna of Papua New Guinea is Zaglossus bruijni.