Articles for tag: Discover Wildlife, Echidna, mammals, Motherhood, Nature Facts, Pseudo Pouch

Close-up of an echidna exploring a grassy field in Manly, Australia.

What’s Hiding Inside an Echidna’s ‘Pseudo-Pouch’? Scientists Just Found Out

Jan Otte

The distinctive spiky, egg-laying mammals called Echidnas can be found in the wild. They feed their babies without nipples, and then carry their babies in a slender “pseudo-pouch” that is created by muscle contractions. The mysteries of the microbial life that reside within this bizarre pocket of life are being revealed by cutting-edge research carried ...

hedgehog walking on green grass

Ancient Aquatic Roots? Echidnas May Have Crawled Out of the Water, Not Into It

Jan Otte

In a surprising turnaround that defies conventional evolutionary hypotheses, recent research indicates that echidnas Australia’s mysterious, spiny, egg-laying mammals could have evolved from aquatic origins instead of terrestrial ones. This finding, released in PNAS, upends the textbook narrative for how scientists think about monotremes, the strange branch of mammals that comprises echidnas and platypuses. If ...