Frank<p>Australia’s spiky, shuffling, egg-laying echidna evolved in ‘extremely rare’ event, scientists say</p><p>Researchers have compared the monotreme’s traits with the Kryoryctes cadburyi, an ancient water-dwelling creature that lived in Australia more than 100m years ago</p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/29/how-echidna-evolved-australia-mammal-study" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">theguardian.com/environment/20</span><span class="invisible">25/apr/29/how-echidna-evolved-australia-mammal-study</span></a></p><p><a href="https://masto.nu/tags/Newa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Newa</span></a> <a href="https://masto.nu/tags/Australia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Australia</span></a> <a href="https://masto.nu/tags/Echidna" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Echidna</span></a> <a href="https://masto.nu/tags/Evolution" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Evolution</span></a> <a href="https://masto.nu/tags/Mammal" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Mammal</span></a></p>