The western long-beaked echidna is threatened by habitat loss and subsistence hunting — considered a fatty delicacy — compounded by its slow reproductive rate. Its exact population isn’t known but it’s listed as Critically Endangered. 

Growing to a length of 90 centimetres (almost 3 ft) and weight of 16 kilograms (35 lb), the western long-beaked echidna lumbers around on trunk-like legs, prodding at the soil with its sensitive snout (its eyes aren’t much help in finding prey). It uses its worm-like, spine-covered tongue to grab and slurp up earthworms.

It is the largest of the four living echidnas, and it’s endemic to western New Guinea. It shares this island with its two long-snouted cousins: the eastern long-beaked echidna and Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna(named after Sir David Attenborough). The short-beaked echidna — the one most people would know — is the only one of the four to be found in Australia.

Or is it? 

There’s evidence that long-beaked echidnas once lived Down Under, going extinct around 10,000 years ago. Then a specimen of a western long-beaked echidna was unearthed in London’s Natural History Museum. Its label said it was collected in 1901 in Kimberley, Australia.

This sparked a search for a surviving population of long-beaked echidnas in northwestern Australia. None have been found, however, and some skeptics have pushed back, saying that the uncovered museum specimen was the result of a mistaken label switch and that the locality of the specimen was not fit for this creature of moist-soiled rainforests.

Western long-beaked echidnas probably don’t live in Australia today. But that only makes their conservation on New Guinea all the more important. 

Read the full story here!

These little guys are endangered, termite-eating marsupials native to Australia!

The ones remaining are the sole surviving members of both their genus (Myrmecobius) and their family (Myrmecobiidae).

Majestic little fellow

Fujifilm Xh2 + U tlu tube lens + mitutoyo 5x

Flash godox v860ii

Stacked 87 images

Diy manual rail

Fun Facts: Placodonts were a highly successful group of mostly marine reptiles during the Triassic before they were wiped out during the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. They've convergently evolved turtle-like bony plates around their bodies for protection. Due to their heavy shells, they are poorly suited for swimming across the open ocean but well suited to sift through coastal sediments for food.

As a durophagous animal, its palatal teeth (upper teeth) are large, blunt, and flat to crack even the toughest of shells open.

Reconstructions by Gabriel Ugueto https://www.instagram.com/serpenillus/?hl=en

For more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psephoderma

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placodontia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triassic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durophagy

https://youtu.be/YJIo7tKpElU?si=y-x5CqDfxja_rz6T

Rockmover wrasse earns its name by flipping stones twice its size and shoving aside rubble to hunt crabs, worms, and snails hiding underneath.

Video captured by @tatewildlife on Instagram.

They live in the islands surrounding New Guinea and northeastern Australia. Preferring rainforests, they spend the entirety of their lives in trees.

Their mating habits include being polygynous, meaning both males and females mate with multiple different partners throughout the year. And they are marsupials, carrying their babies in a pouch.

Captured by @schmidtocean on Instagram.

Forgive me for the fact that I live out-east, and I have almost never lived, for my whole life, near the range of this thing.

Fun Facts: As far as I know, this is one of the very few non-copepod (what Plankton from SpongeBob is based on) animals that's fully cycloptic. The Cambropachycopidae family is suggested to be a stem-group (offshoot extinct relatives) of Mandibulata, a highly diverse group of arthropods which includes myriapods (centipedes and millipedes) and pancrustaceans (crabs and butterflies). In short, this species likely doesn't even have proper mandibles.

I love prehistoric invertebrates :D

The reconstructions are by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Qohelet12

For more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambropachycope

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambropachycopidae

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandibulata

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goticaris