Ancient Bone Analysis Reveals Echidnas' Aquatic Ancestry

Ain't no party like an echidna party!

A Tasmanian short-beaked echidna named Adelaide recently turned 56, and the video footage from her birthday party is bringing me joy! She was presented with a beautiful cake that *looked* to be chocolate with purple frosting—but it was really made out of some of her favorite foods, meal worms and chicken puree dyed with animal-safe food coloring! — Read the rest The post Ain't no party like an echidna party! appeared first on Boing Boing.

The surprising evolution of the weirdest animals on Earth, according to a new study

A new study suggests the platypus and echidna — the only egg-laying mammals — had a water-dwelling ancestor. The finding could upend what’s known of their evolution.

In rare evolutionary event, weird platypus cousin evolved from living in water to living on land

We may have gotten the evolutionary origins of the echidna backward, as new research suggests its ancestors probably lived in the water, not on land.

Ancient echidnas leave palaeontologists scratching their heads with bones suggesting underwater ancestry

A small bone found 30 years ago has been reanalysed revealing perhaps the stem ancestor of platypus and echidnas went through an “extremely rare” evolutionary change. Platypus and echidnas are the only surviving members of the monotreme family. This includes the only mammals to lay eggs rather than giving birth to live young. For this reason, they are considered relics of early mammal evolution. Fossils of monotremes have been found in South Ame…

108-million-year-old bone shatters beliefs, reveals echidna ancestors lived in water

The humerus bone from Kryoryctes cadburyi challenges the theory that monotremes evolved from a land-dwelling ancestor.