Secretly Incredibly Fascinating: Echidnas

Episode notes

Alex Schmidt and Katie Goldin explore why echidnas are secretly incredibly fascinating.

Visit http://sifpod.fun/ for research sources, handy links, and this week’s bonus episode.

LINKS FOR KATIE GOLDIN:

RESOURCES USED TO INFORM THE EPISODE’S LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

RESEARCH SOURCES:

Trilobites: An Expedition Finds a ‘Lost’ Mammal and a Shrimp That Lives in Trees (The New York Times)
Found at last: critically endangered echidna finally rediscovered after 60 years (University Of Oxford Department Of Biology)
First-ever images prove ‘lost echidna’ not extinct (BBC News)
Echidna Fact Sheet (PBS Nature)
Short-beaked Echidna (Australia Zoo)
Where there’s a quill: CSI uses DNA to catch echidna smugglers (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Australian researchers discover why only two of echidna’s four penis heads become erect at one time (The Guardian)
Ten reasons to love echidnas (Natural History Museum London)
Echidna mothers change their pouch microbiome to protect tiny ‘pink jelly bean’ puggles, new research finds (The Guardian)
The Dread Gorgon: The head of Medusa, in myth and in memory. (Lapham’s Quarterly)
Greek Mythology: Ekhidna (Theoi.com)
They sense electric fields, tolerate snow and have ‘mating trains’: 4 reasons echidnas really are remarkable (The Conversation)
Brainy Echidna Proves Looks Aren’t Everything (The New York Times)
The Unique Penile Morphology of the Short-Beaked Echidna, Tachyglossus aculeatus (journal ‘Sexual Development’ / PubMed)
Scientists Are Unlocking the Mysteries of an Echidna’s Fancy, Four-Headed Penis (Mental Floss)
Solving the mystery of the four-headed echidna penis (The University Of Melbourne ‘Pursuit’)
Antarctic Geology (Australian Antarctic Program)
Encyclopedia Britannica entry for Gondwana, ancient supercontinent
Bone microstructure supports a Mesozoic origin for a semiaquatic burrowing lifestyle in monotremes (PNAS)
A Single Prehistoric Bone Might Rewrite the History of the World’s Strangest Mammals (Smithsonian Magazine)
Australia’s spiky, shuffling, egg-laying echidna evolved in ‘extremely rare’ event, scientists say (The Guardian)
Stunning breakthrough: the platypus and echidnas came from the South Pole (Australian Geographic)
A diverse assemblage of monotremes (Monotremata) from the Cenomanian Lightning Ridge fauna of New South Wales, Australia (Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Paleontology)
Scientists discover long-beaked echidna may not be a thing of the past in Australia (The Smithsonian)
Why do echidnas swim? (Australian Geographic)
The private life of echidnas: using accelerometry and GPS to examine field biomechanics and assess the ecological impact of a widespread, semi-fossorial monotreme (Journal of Experimental Biology)
Echidna’s ‘digging walk’ cultivates Australian soil (Cosmos Magazine)
Burrowing Echidnas Act as Natural Hoes (Mental Floss)
SciShow: “Why Echidnas Are Evolutionary Misfits” (YouTube)
Encouraging the study and protection of the natural environment (Western Australian Naturalists’ Club)
book excerpt: “Why the Echidna is Australia’s Most Delightfully Different Mammal” by Jack Ashby (Atlas Obscura)
Short-beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) Fact Sheet: Behavior & Ecology (San Diego Zoo)
Echidnas Blow Bubbles of Snot to Stay Cool in The Australian Outback (ScienceAlert.com)

In this episode...

About the show

A weekly podcast about the history, science, lore and surprises that make everyday things secretly incredibly fascinating. Hosted by comedy writer, emoji creator, and ‘Jeopardy!‘ champion Alex Schmidt. Join Alex & his co-host Katie Goldin for a joyful deep dive into seeing the world a whole new way!