Echidna: Extraordinary Egg-Laying Mammal (Australian Natural History Series) [Paperback]

Michael Augee (Author), Brett Gooden (Author), Anne Musser (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0643092048 | ISBN-13: 978-0643092044 | Publication Date: January 2006

The echidna is one of the world’s most extraordinary creatures. It is a living fossil whose relatives were walking the earth over 100 million years ago. Like the platypus, it is a mammal that lays eggs. And, like all mammals, it has fur and produces milk.

This book describes the echidna’s lifestyle and the adaptations that have made it so successful. It draws on the latest research into these strange creatures, covering their evolution, anatomy, senses, reproduction, behaviour, feeding habits and metabolism. The authors reveal some fascinating new findings, showing how echidnas are masters of their environment, and not simply some sort of mammal ‘test model’ that went wrong. A final chapter on conservation includes information on captive diet and management.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael Augee is Director of the Wellington Caves Fossil Studies Centre and is formerly Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of New South Wales.

Brett Gooden is noted for his research into the fundamentals of diving physiology, and, together with Michael Augee, has published papers in echidna physiology and field biology.

Anne Musser is an artist and palaeontologist. She specializes in the early evolution of monotremes and has illustrated many books.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: CSIRO Publishing (January 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0643092048
• ISBN-13: 978-0643092044
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,924,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything you need to know about echidnas, minus the waffle and storybook style., December 5, 2010

By 

R. A. Lang "madbioman" (Brisbane, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Echidna: Extraordinary Egg-Laying Mammal (Australian Natural History Series) (Paperback)

Numerous over-long books have been written about one or other of Australia's animals, full of historical asides and racy "human interest" stories about unusual people. But this book is NOT one of these science books that pretend to be a novel!
Instead, this book serves to quickly teach the reader just about everything that is known about a unique animal, with only a modest investment of reading time.
The same can be said about all of its excellent companion volumes in The Australian Natural History Series (from CSIRO Publishing or the UNSW Press) ; each one of these fairly thin volumes is devoted to a particular Australian animal, and each book contains 100% of densely-packed information.....with no "fillers".

This book contains everything that the very inquisitive layperson, or the enthusiastic biology student, or the beginning researcher, needs to know about the echidna.
Here you will find nearly everything that is known about this remarkable creature, and there are very plentiful references if you wish to go on to read the actual scientific research papers about this animal.

You will benefit from this book if you enjoy learning numerous interesting FACTS, and you wish to get real & very detailed insights into the unique characteristics and mysterious evolutionary histories of the monotremes (= platypus and echidna), a very ancient lineage that represents "a unique and completely different way of being a mammal".

If you like a "light and breezy and chatty tone" in your reading material, you may find this book a little too dry and terse and concentrated. The authors are, after all, SCIENTISTS, and scientists are not famous for writing compelling prose! However, this book reads well, and it is much better written than the usual technical monograph. Furthermore, the abundant technical detail is leavened with many beautiful photographs, and a certain number of evocative quotations & personal asides do serve to lighten the tone of the book.

In summary, this book presents the scientific findings about echidnas in such a way that any intelligent person can understand them, so this book is undoubtedly the best way to quickly learn a lot about echidnas and monotreme biology. Its companion volumes about other Australian creatures (e.g. the platypus) are similarly informative.