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#13338 12/19/00 02:34 PM
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Does anyone know why an echidna is so named?

Easy variant: Does anyone know what an echidna looks like? Yes, that was easy, it looks exactly like a hedgehog. Here are some things it looks nothing at all like: a camel, a crab, a viper, a horse.

What is the Greek for 'hedgehog'? It's echinos. What is the word right next to that in a Greek dictionary? It's echidna, which means 'viper'.

What is my theory? That some enthusiastic junior zoologist in the 1820s with small Greek got it wrong and they've been covering up for him ever since.


#13339 12/19/00 03:45 PM
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#13340 12/19/00 04:00 PM
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Aha!! [triumph]

And I always thought the species names Tachyglossus and Zaglossus were shonky attempts to deepen the cover-up: sort of "'tis tongued like a viper" -- "very like a viper".

I once wrote to Stephen Jay Gould about this very matter. When I got to the crucial phrase and they've been covering up ever since I even burst into green biro to let him know I was serious. He must have been very busy at the time. What with not replying and all.

#13341 12/19/00 08:53 PM
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>Yes, that was easy, it looks exactly like a hedgehog.

Not to my eye, it don't, especially the front end, although I can't claim to have seen a hedgehog in the flesh.

http://yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au/~tzvi/Echigall.html

I've probably seen a grand total of 15 or so echidnas in my 42 years, so it's always a special moment when it happens. They are quite timid and, if no other refuge is available, tend to burrow into the nearest soil with a few powerful sweeps of their paws, which have long curved claws ideally suited for the task.

And what's the only other monotreme? (Hint on the picture page for those that need it.)


#13342 12/19/00 09:12 PM
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I know-- Mr. platypus-- Ozzie's do have some of the most interesting animals. but

we have marsupials here, too. possums (opossums) live in my neighborhood..More down Jackie's way(I suspect)-- but I've seen them out and about late at night.


#13343 12/19/00 11:32 PM
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(Heard this 25 years ago, so apologies if the truth turns out to be a little different...)

Apparently the first European descriptions of Australia's large flightless bird referred to "an emu-like creature", emu being Portuguese for ostrich!!

With a minimal Portuguese population here (I can't recall ever meeting a Portuguese Australian), I guess the name went without being questioned and it's stuck. If my memory serves me correctly, the original name (well, in the Sydney dialect anyway) is "Marayong" - hence the name of the suburb near Blacktown.

stales


#13344 12/20/00 01:15 AM
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Marty, what a wonderful link! Thank you!
I guess Monash U is in Australia?
Yes, of troy, we have lots of possums here. There's even a secluded street near me called Possum Path.


#13345 12/20/00 01:23 AM
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>I guess Monash U is in Australia?

Yes, Jackie, one of several in my home town of Melbourne as it happens. I must admit that I'm getting so blasé with web searches that I just Googled for echidna, found the pics and posted the link without even looking at where it came from!


#13346 12/20/00 08:59 AM
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I once wrote to Stephen Jay Gould about this very matter ... He must have been very busy at the time. What with not replying and all. (Cut down to please Jazz. What it is to be young and impatient).

Yah, not surprising that you didn't hear back from SJG. He's too busy fighting off the hosts of that force for evil, sociobiology. Must be tough for him too, what with sharing even the cockroaches with his lifelong professional enemy every working day ...



The idiot also known as Capfka ...
#13347 12/20/00 12:04 PM
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>Yes, that was easy, it looks exactly like a hedgehog.

Not to my eye, it don't, especially the front end, although I can't claim to have seen a hedgehog in the flesh.


Oh come on, given a choice between a hedgehog and a viper!?

Well I've seen both very close up in the wild... hang on, I've never seen a viper that close... perhaps I'm missing something that becomes blindingly obvious then.


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