Zaglossus hacketti the Large Spiny Anteater

Zaglossus 

Zaglossus hacketti was a large monotreme.  Monotremes are mammals that lay eggs like the platyplus.  The Zaglossus hacketii is now extinct.  It was endemic to Australia.  That means it was from that place only.  it was about a meter long. . . that is just over a yard.  It weighed about 30 kg or 66 lbs.  It was 60 cm tall.  That is around 24 inches tall.  So about 2 feet tall and three feet long.  As far as we know it was the largerst monotreme ever to live on Earth.  

The more well known platypus is much smaller at only about 20 inches or 50 cm.  I think I will draw a duck bill platypus next. 

The Zaglossus was a type of echidnas.  Echidnas still live on Earth, in New Guinea, but the three species of living echidnas are much smaller than Zaglossus hacketti.  The living echidnas are also called spiny anteaters.  So like its non extinct relatives, Zaglossus fed on ants and termites.  The termite mounds in Australia can be huge.   Some of the smaller termite mounds are depicted in my drawing.  Zaglossus lived in what is now Western  Australia.  Echidnas have a long mouth or snout that is both nose and mouth.  They have a long sticky tongue they use for catching termines and ants.  

One more unusual fact.  The living echidnas have the second lowest body temperature of any mammal at 33 degrees Celsius or 91.4 degrees Fahrenheit.  

NOTE:  The printable version is available by clicking on either the All Printables button ....or the Animals button ... or the Paleontology button... up at the top of this blog page.  Scroll down because new drawings are at the bottom of the lists.  This is an extinct animals but it looks so much like the modern Spiny Anteaters that I put it on both the Paleontolgy and Aniamls page.