The object of the month – Western long-nosed echidna (Zaglossus bruijnii Peters & Doria, 1876)
Today, the ELTE Natural History Museum is a repository of the university's natural history and natural science heritage and treasures, covering natural objects, museum education aids, and research tools collected at the university from the late 1700s to the present day. The date of its founding, 1774, is also linked to the founding of the Department of Natural History at that time. The museum has two large exhibition spaces: the Mineral and Rock Collection, with its impressive historical furniture, evokes the 19th century, while the Biological and Paleontological Exhibition is housed in a sunny, 21st-century glass pyramid. The artifact of the month is a western long-nosed anteater from the latter collection.
Echidnas belong to the egg-laying mammals (Monotremata). Fossils that can be considered their direct ancestors are approximately 17 million years old, but based on modern CT morphometric studies, the age of the humerus bone from the oldest common ancestor of egg-laying mammals is dated to 100 million years ago, and it is considered to be a semi-aquatic (water-bound) mammal with a duck-billed body. Thus, the terrestrial, burrowing lifestyle of today's echidnas is a secondary adaptation. They have retained their good swimming ability to this day. Their anatomical and physiological characteristics combine ancient and modern features: they have a cloaca, reproduce with parchment-like eggs, but feed their tiny offspring with secretions from their mammary glands; their shoulder girdle structure is reptilian; their skeleton is robust; their skull is disproportionate and simple, their jawbone and mandible are elongated like a bird's beak and toothless: deceptively, this unique structure is called both a trunk and a beak. Electro- and mechanoreceptors in the skin covering the trunk help them find their prey. To date, little is known about their lifestyle, distribution, and population size. Based on fossil finds, analysis of indigenous rock paintings, and recent observations, it is certain that they were significantly more common and occurred over a larger area in Papua New Guinea, Australia, and Tasmania, in both dry and wet tropical environments. Their scientific name is thought to derive from Echidna, a half-human, half-snake creature from Greek mythology. There are four known extant species of echidnas.
Our collection includes a male specimen of the western long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bruijnii). It is of outstanding scientific and historical value.
This species is the largest and has the thickest fur among its relatives, with a slightly downward-curving "beak-like trunk." The lifelike specimen was prepared by the famous German taxidermist Gustav Adolph Frank, and its acquisition is documented as having taken place in 1886–87. The species lives in the higher tropical mountain forests of Papua New Guinea, is sluggish, and is mainly active at night. During the day, it rests in bushes, among roots and rocks, or in burrows dug and abandoned by other animals. Like its relatives, it feeds on soil-dwelling invertebrates, which it digs out with its strong claws and nose and easily catches with its long, sticky, spiny tongue (e.g., ants, termites, earthworms). It is solitary, but during the mating season, which lasts for weeks, many individuals chase each other conspicuously, and the female enjoys the company of her offspring for 7-12 months, caring for them. The species is critically endangered (CR) according to the IUCN due to habitat loss, illegal hunting, and introduced predators.
Written by Dr. Mária Tóth Ronkayné (biologist-museologist, ELTE Natural History Museum Biological and Paleontological Exhibition)
