the.com/echidna
a spiky mammal that lays eggs, has no nipples, and dreams hardest of all
means A small, spiny egg-laying mammal of Australia and New Guinea with a long snout and sticky tongue for eating ants and termites, one of the only living monotremes alongside the platypus.
from Borrowed from Greek mythology: Ekhidna (Ἔχιδνα) was the 'she-viper,' a monster half-beautiful-woman and half-serpent, mother of many of Greek myth's nastier creatures. The name comes from Greek 'ekhis,' a viper or adder. Naturalists, struck by the animal's strange in-between nature — part reptile-like (it lays eggs), part mammal — reached for this hybrid monster's name. There may also be a thread of confusion with Greek 'ekhinos,' the spiny hedgehog or sea urchin; the two words look like cousins and the spines fit, but the mythological viper is the documented source.
- egg-laying mammal
- One of only five monotremes left on Earth
- four-headed parts
- Males sport a penis with four heads
- milk sweat
- No nipples; milk oozes through skin patches
- electric snout
- Beak detects prey's faint electrical signals
- deep dreamer
- Shows the most REM sleep of any animal
western long-beaked echidna — endangered species found only in the attenborough range, indonesia, weighs up to 16 kg
short-beaked echidna — tachyglossus aculeatus, found across australia, tasmania, and new guinea