Zaglossus hacketti
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| Zaglossus hacketti Temporal range: Pleistocene |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Monotremata |
| Family: | Tachyglossidae |
| Genus: | Zaglossus |
| Species: | †Z. hacketti |
| Binomial name | |
| Zaglossus hacketti Glauert, 1914 |
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Zaglossus hacketti is an extinct species of long-beaked echidna from Western Australia that is dated from the Pleistocene. It is known only from a few bones found in Western Australia. It was the size of a sheep, weighing probably up to 100 kg (220 lb). This makes it the largest monotreme to have ever lived. Due to the lack of cranial material, placement of Z. hacketti into the modern long-beaked echidna genus Zaglossus is uncertain.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ Siegel, J. M. et al 1999 "Sleep in the platypus" Neuroscience 91(1):391-400
- Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea: One Hundred Million Years of Evolution by John A. Long, Michael Archer, Timothy Flannery, and Suzanne Hand (page 107)
- Echidna: Extraordinary Egg-Laying Mammal (Australian Natural History Series) by Michael Augee, Brett Gooden, and Anne Musser (page 18)
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