attenborough's long-beaked echidna

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attenborough's long-beaked echidna
Scientific Name: ZAGLOSSUS ATTENBOROUGHILast Seen: 1961 IN INDONESIAYears Lost: 58Red List Status: Critically Endangered

If Attenborough’s Long-beaked Echidna is still out there, it is one of just five surviving species of monotreme, an ancient clade of egg-laying mammals found only in Australia and New Guinea, whose origins go back to the Jurassic era some160 million years ago. This species is the smallest and likely most threatened of three long-beaked echidna species, and is known only from a single individual collected by a Dutch botanist during an expedition to the Cyclops Mountain in 1961. Interviews with locals suggest that the animal may still be present in the mountains.

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