Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

Long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus)

Depicted in Rock Art

In his book, Australian Mammal Extinctions, Chris Johnson refers to paintings in Arnhem Land that were mentioned by Murray & Chaloupka (1984), of what are believed to be accurate paintings of echidnas. There are 2 different types of echidna depicted in the paintings, the short-beaked echidna that still survives, and the long-beaked echidna, Zaglossus, that went extinct in Australia with the rest of the megafauna, but still survives in New Guinea.

Sources & Further reading

• Chris Johnson, Australia's Mammal Extinctions, a 50,000 year history, Cambridge University Press, 2006