Animal world Australia is unique, there are no monkeys, you will not meet ruminants and thick-skinned mammals. The continent is dominated by marsupials, the only representative of wild dogs in the world, a turtle with a long neck like a giraffe, and many other amazing creatures.
- Echidna
This small animal, covered with needles, with a long proboscis nose, is the only representative of the echidna genus. Echidna is a marsupial, but only she and the platypus lay eggs, which makes them even more unique. It's amazing how an echidna bears offspring. The female lays a pea-sized egg and then places it in a pouch on her belly. How she does this is still unknown, after 10 days a cub hatches in a bag.
- Kangaroo
Who doesn't know a kangaroo!? Everyone knows the kangaroo. An amazing Australian animal with large, muscular legs and a strong, long tail. The kangaroo is the only large animal that uses jumping as a way to get around. In nature, there are only 3 types of kangaroos: western and eastern gray, western red. Other species are wallabies, quoka and kangaroo rats - relatives.
- Koala
The koala is a herbivorous marsupial related to wombats. For a long time she was considered a bear, but she has nothing to do with bears. The koala feeds exclusively on eucalyptus leaves and shoots; it has no competition in gastronomy. Other animals bypass the plant with a high content of toxic phenolic compounds and hydrocyanic acid. The unique microflora of the digestive tract allows the koala to neutralize poisons.
- Wombat
The wombat belongs to the family of two-crested marsupials. Quite large, reaches a weight of 40 kg. Wombats live in burrows dug by them and feed on plant foods. The back of their body is extremely hard due to thick skin, bones and cartilage. Something like a shield, protects the animal when attacked from behind.
- Dingo
The pedigree of the dingo is full of mysteries. According to recent research, this dog cannot be native to Australia. Scientists believe that the first settlers from Asia brought it to the continent about 4,000 years ago. The secondarily feral dogs found in the rich nature of Australia everything that is necessary for survival: a lot of game and a complete absence of competitors.
- Platypus
After the discovery of platypuses, for another 27 years, scientists did not know which class the animals belonged to. But a German biologist discovered they had mammary glands, and platypuses were classified as mammals. Every year, platypuses go into hibernation, which lasts -10 days, and after that the mating season begins. By the way, the platypus beak is soft and covered with skin, and not hard as many believe.
- Possum
Not to be confused with possums! One of the most interesting possums is the sugar flying or pygmy marsupial flying squirrel. Because of the habitat of the animal, it is also called the Australian marsupial flying squirrel. But the possum looks like a squirrel only in part.
- bilby
He is a rabbit bandicoot - another representative of marsupial mammals from sunny Australia. Bandicoots have become rare and are heavily guarded. They feed on insects and larvae, various roots, bulbs, small lizards, seeds and mushrooms.
- Australian snake-necked turtle
This turtle hides its head under the shell not as usual, pulling it in, but laying it on the side. grows up to 30 cm. Against the background of the dark color of the head and shell, the golden-yellow iris of the eyes stands out brightly.
- Marsupial anteater or nambat
Unlike most marsupials, the females of this animal do not have a bag. After 2 weeks of pregnancy, the babies have to cling to the thick fur on the mother's belly. At the nambats short life, low fecundity, tender offspring and many enemies, so their range is seriously reduced. These are marsupials without a bag.
Long before white-skinned aliens arrived on the Australian continent, extraordinary creatures lived there - half people, half monkeys, and next to them their relatives - a whole family of totemic animals.
Approximately this is how the natives imagine the times that have gone into oblivion. From that time to the present day, animals have been preserved in Australia, which, it would seem, had long been supposed to turn into fossils.
Giant serpent and ostrich dinosaur
First of all, these are the colossal snakes of Central Australia: the volunqua and their relatives the mindi, or rainbow snakes. But the spellbound contemplation of this "rainbow" may be the last thing you see in your life. Fortunately, the reptile emits a nauseating odor that warns of its presence. Mindy is also credited with other misfortunes: it is believed that the snake carries an epidemic of syphilis.
These snakes live in the coastal strip and are almost unknown in the interior, where there is barely 500 millimeters of precipitation per year. For local tribes, giant snakes served as prototypes of fantastic creatures from numerous traditions and legends.
One of them is the legend of an evil yero, either a snake or an eel, which lives in some northwestern lakes. The throat of this creature is incredibly wide. According to the ideas Australian aborigines whirlpools can be born in it.
“On the Atherton plateau in Queensland,” says G. Whitley, an ichthyologist from the Australian Museum, “there is a lake that I could not force the rowers of my boat to cross. They believed that some mythical animal lives in the depths of the lake.”
What is this animal? Probably, in the image of a fabulous snake, ideas about all the dangers that await a person floating over great depths on a light boat were embodied. This is a peculiar form of recording the experience of generations among the natives.
No less impressive are the legends about an animal named gauarge - an unusual animal that leads a semi-aquatic lifestyle. He drags to the bottom of everyone who dares to swim through his possessions. Remarkably, the Gauarge is described as an emu, but an emu without feathers!
If you ever get a chance to contemplate a plucked Australian ostrich, its carcass will look like Struthiomimus, one of the dinosaurs whose name means "which resembles an ostrich."
Many people think that dinosaurs are necessarily huge monsters. However, among them were specimens no larger than a chicken. Between these dwarfs and the giant iguanodonts is Struthiomimus, an ostrich dinosaur that lived in the marshy coastal lowlands but also took refuge in the water.
It can be assumed that the natives met or preserved in legends the memory of encounters with a living dinosaur. In any case, it is more useful to treat the Gauarga legend with attention than with contempt.
Dwarf that devours children
It is quite easy to find an explanation for the old Australian legend of the mocking-man who is not taken by death. Now zoologists are well aware that this is none other than the bird Dacelo gigas, nicknamed Martin the hunter. The night calls of this bird still instill fear in the locals.
One of these "nightmarish" creatures has long been considered yara - maya-vho. Aborigines claim that this is a small toothless man, similar to a frog. It lives on palm trees and has suckers on its fingers. They say that with these suction cups he sticks around the body of a child who is under a tree, and does not let go until he sucks all the blood out of him.
It is surprising that zoologists could not identify this creature for so long. After all, apart from the bloodthirsty disposition, there is so much information about the animal that it is as easy for a zoologist to recognize it as it is for a peasant to guess a riddle: who runs on two legs, is covered with feathers and shouts to a crow?
There is no doubt that the mysterious Yara is none other than the ghost tarsier (Tarsius spectrum). This is a small furry animal with a flat face and huge eyes. It can be considered the most mysterious of all primates.
Being among the branches, he can take a stand on his hind legs. His appearance is so reminiscent of a human that the English anatomist Wood-Jones and his Dutch colleague A. Hubrecht considered him the closest creature to man! Of course, this is an exaggeration, but the animal has outstanding, unique qualities.
He is only twelve to twenty centimeters tall. Enormous eyes are dilated to enhance night vision, at the tips of long fingers there are thickenings with suction cups. The foot of the tarsier is so long (hence the name of the animal) that, unlike other primates, it is forced to rely only on its toes when walking. But the tarsier jumps beautifully, while resembling a hairy frog, but its jumps are much easier. The weight of only about 140 grams allows him to make two-meter jumps, while ascending sixty centimeters! Of course, the tarsier is far from toothless, but when it opens its V-shaped mouth, rather sinister, it seems that it has no teeth.
The tarsier is the only primate that can be considered fully carnivorous. He sometimes tastes fruits, but the main food is insects, lizards, birds and even small mammals. For them, the tarsier is a bloodthirsty robber.
If we add to the described properties of the tarsier its nocturnal lifestyle, then we can understand why this rare animal has become the subject of all kinds of superstitions.
There is only one reason that prevented zoologists from seeing ghost tarsiers in Yara. It is that the latter is not found in Australia. It is found only in the Malay Archipelago: in Sumatra, Borneo, Sulawesi and several Philippine Islands.
Previously, tarsiers were distributed much more widely than at present. In the deposits of the early Tertiary period, these strange "little men" are found throughout Europe and North America. But today in Australia there are no placental mammals in the wild - except, of course, those brought by man, that is, rats, dingoes and others.
Once upon a time, mammals with a placenta displaced marsupials all over the planet, but could not penetrate the “watershed”, that is, the invisible line that zoologists drew between Bali and Lombok, and to the north between Borneo and Sulawesi. In short, they failed to get into New Guinea, nor to Australia, where marsupials flourished in complete safety before the invasion of man.
This is why it is almost unbelievable that tarsier could live in Australia. Perhaps unraveling the mystery of this animal will help shed light on the problem of the origin of the Australian tribes, which has been worrying anthropologists for so long. It can be assumed that the legends about the Yara came to the mainland from the islands of Borneo, Sumatra and Sulawesi, were passed down from generation to generation and have survived to this day.
It is undeniable that the tiny tarsier, completely harmless to humans, keeps at bay not only Australia, but the entire Malay region. In addition, it seems to me likely that the same animal gave rise to the legend of the "forest demon", common in the Philippines.
"Animals on Bird Legs"
No matter how amazing the animals from the folklore of Oceania, a real boom in fantastic tales came after arriving on the Australian continent. white man, so disposed to all kinds of fables. We hasten to add that most of the rumors had a real basis.
When in the early 17th century brave Dutch sailors began to explore the Australian seas in search of rich and fertile islands, they had to land on the shores of a seemingly endless land, which they called New Holland out of nostalgic feelings.
In this country, they said, lives a big beast, like a man, with a long tail and a small head, like a goat. His hind legs are like those of a bird, and he can jump on them like a frog. In 1640, the first scientific description of an animal was given, accompanied by a fantastic drawing.
A century later, Captain James Cook, stopping near the mainland to repair a ship that had hit a reef, took the opportunity to visit the mysterious land. He penetrated deep into the territory in the area of Trinity Bay. On July 9, 1770, two of his crew — one of them was the famous naturalist Joseph Banks — went hunting to replenish their stocks of meat. As Cook later related, they walked several miles and met four "those same animals on bird legs." Banks set his greyhound after them, but she quickly fell behind - the thick grass, through which the animals easily jumped, prevented her from running.
Soon, Cook learned that the natives call the jumper a kangaroo. However, this name was never found later in any of the Australian dialects ...
The information received from such an educated and meticulous person in the reports as James Cook was not in doubt, therefore, twenty years later the word "kangaroo" was already used as a scientific name in books on zoology.
But most of all, Cook was surprised that jumpers carry babies with them in a pocket on their stomach.
A striking feature of the animal world of Australia soon became clear: all mammals living on the mainland had the same pockets for their young.
Mammals that lay eggs
But the scientific world was waiting for even more unexpected surprises. In 1797, an animal named "water mole" was discovered in the southern part of New Gaul. In fact, this strange animal was more like an otter. He had flippers on his feet. But if the membranes between the fingers can be assumed in a mammal, then what could European zoologists say about the presence of a duck's beak in him!
A stuffed animal of the first platypus, examined by members of the Royal Zoological Society, was found to be a fake.
The fact is that animal samples coming from the East were sometimes so skillfully faked by the Chinese that scientists have long been accustomed to "sensational" fakes and looked skeptically at any surprise. How many times have travelers brought to Europe the mummies of sirens who, according to legend, live somewhere in the Indian Ocean! In fact, they were made from the torso and head of a monkey, the paws of a bird, and the tail of a fish. The "Water Mole," consisting of parts of a bird and a mammal at the same time - and this seemed certain - belonged to skillful forgeries.
Meanwhile, the skin of the animal was subjected to a thorough analysis by Dr. George Shaw, who did not find any traces of glue or other attachment of parts on it. He recognized the remains of the animal as real and in 1799 gave his first scientific description. So the unusual animal got the name Ornithoryn-chus paradoxus, which means "a beast with duck paws and a beak."
But it was not enough to give the unusual creature a scientific name. It was also necessary to find a place for him in the taxonomy of the animal world.
Since the animal was covered with hair, no one doubted that we are talking about a mammal. The German zoologist John Friedrich Blumenbach decided to attribute it to the edentulous - as a rule, they included all animals that did not fit into the classification.
In 1802, two specimens of platypuses arrived in England in alcohol form. One of the animals was a female, but upon closer inspection, no mammary glands were found in her! In addition to such an incredible property, the "water moles" had an anus and a genital passage combined, like birds and reptiles.
In the end, the English anatomist Home proposed to separate platypuses into a separate classification, where another animal, discovered in Australia, was soon assigned: an echidna, whose elongated muzzle also resembles a beak.
The matter became even more confused when rumors began to arrive from Australia that the platypus was laying eggs. This fact confirmed the opinion of Lamarck, according to which monotremes are the ancestors of mammals and are close in many ways to birds and reptiles.
In 1824, another surprise: the German scientist Meckel discovered mammary glands in a platypus! But an animal that lays eggs cannot have mammary glands! Nevertheless, they were. In 1832, the Australian naturalist Lieutenant Mole established that the mammary glands of the platypus produce milk. Only in 1884 was a real method of reproduction and rearing of the offspring of platypuses established. So surprisingly scientific world found an animal that simultaneously lays eggs and feeds its young with milk.
Once again, the rule was confirmed: "impossible" animals can exist in nature.
Bunyip
Who is he - bunyip?
Until now, the bunyip has served as a symbol of everything mysterious and terrible that the imagination of a colonist who found himself on an unfamiliar mainland could only imagine.
It seems to me that the word "bunyip" in the language of the natives meant everything that could not be explained with the help of familiar concepts. Similar to our word "demon".
It can be assumed that when asked by white people which of the animals unknown to them committed this or that atrocity, the Australians answered that this was the work of the bunyip or that he crossed their path.
It's strange that this mystical creature, endowed with such powerful abilities, was embodied in the image of not only a specific, but also a fairly ordinary animal. True, unknown to science.
The first mention of it refers to 1801. The French mineralogist Charles Bailly, a member of the expedition of Nicolas Bodin, together with his companions left the bay, which they named after their ship, in order to go as deep as possible into the unfamiliar mainland. Suddenly they heard from the reeds of the Swan River a devilish roar, more terrible than the roar of an angry bull. In a panic, the colonists fled to the shore, deciding that a monster of incredible size was found in the swamps of the new continent.
Later, researcher Hamilton Hume confirmed the existence of a water monster, but curiously, his evidence refers to an area located on the opposite side of Australia. In Lake Bathurst, he observed an animal that looked like both a manatee and a hippopotamus. Scientists of the Australian Philosophical Society immediately promised the researcher to reimburse all expenses if he manages to get the carcass of this animal. But Hume couldn't do it.
Rumors of this kind came from different parts of the continent, especially from the southeastern regions.
Lieutenant W. Breton wrote: “They say that a species of seal with supernatural power lives in Lake George.”
To mid-nineteenth century, the legend of the bunyip was firmly established throughout the mainland. Who did not care about the mysterious beast, and what miracles were not attributed to him! In 1846, near one of the tributaries of the Murray, which separates Victoria from Southern New Gaul, a fragment of a skull was found, which was sent to the naturalist W. S. Maclay as "the head of a bunyip." The scientist concluded that the skull belonged to a foal. In London, a specialist in the field got acquainted with the sample comparative anatomy Professor Richard Owen, who thought that in front of him was a fragment of the skull of a cow.
One of the experts was wrong, and since the animal was never identified, it can be assumed that both were wrong. Unfortunately, valuable evidence has mysteriously disappeared.
In 1848, a dark-colored animal with a head resembling that of a kangaroo was seen on the Emeralia River. It had a long neck, dense growth on its head, and a huge mouth. According to local residents, it was a bunyip that was waiting in the water for another victim.
In 1872, on Burrumbit Lake, a large animal approached the boat, so that all its passengers rushed to the other side in fear and almost capsized into the water. The beast has been described as a water dog. His head was round and devoid of ears.
In 1875, near Dalby in Queensland, a creature resembling a seal was seen poking out of the water. It had a double but not symmetrical tail fin.
In addition, some kind of water monster was registered in Tasmania, that is, outside the Australian continent.
The construction of the Waddaman Dam and all sorts of changes in natural conditions caused by the construction of the Great Lake power plant did not get rid of the ubiquitous water demon. His appearance was noted here until recently.
Common seal or new marsupial?
With so much evidence of a dog-headed, flattened-eared, short-haired pinniped in the water, it's hard not to speculate about the existence of some kind of freshwater seal.
Many species of pinnipeds live along the coasts of Australia and Tasmania. For example, sea dog (Otaria), leopard seal (Leptonyx), elephant seal (Mirounga). But can these animals climb deep into the mainland?
Theoretically, they can. After all, there is a species of seal that is never found in the seas. In addition, it has been established that seals sometimes penetrate deep into Australia along the Murray and its tributary Darling. Dr. Charles Fenner mentions a case in which a seal was killed at Conargo, near Southern Nova Gaul, 1,450 kilometers from the mouth of the river. In Shoalhaven, in 1870, a leopard seal was shot down, in the stomach of which an adult platypus was found, which led G. Whitley to remark: “The bunyip swallowed the bunyip!”
Thus, it has been established that pinnipeds can travel considerable distances in fresh water. Perhaps they could also make short passages by land. It is noteworthy in this regard that most often the appearance of a water demon is recorded in the southeast, that is, in the territories of the basins of the two largest rivers in Australia.
As for the heart-rending cries coming from the reeds, they could not belong to the pinniped, but to the bittern (Botaurus poiciloptius). By the way, it is to her voice that she owes the local name "Murray Bull".
However, the appearance of a water demon is timed to coincide with places that, with all the desire, no pinniped could reach. Therefore, Australian scientists prefer more original hypotheses.
“It is believed,” writes Whitley, “that we are talking about a marsupial animal that has survived to this day, similar to an otter.”
Why shouldn't our demon be an aquatic marsupial? And are Aboriginal legends connected with the recent existence of Diprotodon, which is believed to have inhabited the rivers, swamps and lakes of the mainland?
Rabbits the size of a rhinoceros
Gold miners scattered across the sandy deserts of the western plateau and the thorny bushes of the central lowlands - practically unexplored areas - encountered large animals that outwardly resembled rabbits.
Such reports were received so regularly that finally interested scientists, among whom was the famous Australian naturalist Ambrose Pratt. He was the first to ask himself the question: are the three-meter rabbits diprotodons, huge marsupials that were considered extinct? After all, they used to be found in large numbers on the Nullarbor Plain, until the intensified drought turned a significant part of the mainland into a desert. The found skulls reached a length of one meter. The appearance of the diprotodon was even reconstructed. These extinct marsupials are credited with the manners of the tapir: they had to lead a semi-aquatic lifestyle among the lush vegetation that covered the mainland at the end of the last epoch of glaciation, that is, from twelve to thirty thousand years ago. The drought, which devastated vast territories like leprosy, drove out the diprotodons from the mainland.
Of course, the huge herbivore initially found its home in drought-resistant oases. As they dried up, herds of diprotodons went to the next source of water.
In 1953, Professor Reuben Stirton of the University of California discovered a genuine diprotodon graveyard in northwest Australia containing between five hundred and a thousand perfectly preserved skeletons. It is believed that a herd of these animals gathered on the site of a recently dried lake, covered with a crust hardened in the sun. Under the weight of the herd, the crust could not stand it, and many animals got stuck in wet silt.
Even if they completely disappeared several millennia ago, the first Australian Aborigines must have found them.
Van Yennep believes that the oral transmission of information cannot last any long, while rumors about animals described as similar to diprotodons continue to circulate among the natives.
After all, Australia was not without water at all. Otherwise, the fate of the "giant rabbits" would have befallen other herbivores, and at the same time the predators that fed on them. A sufficient number of lakes, streams and swamps remained on the mainland, near which, like other representatives of the Australian fauna, diprotodons could continue to exist.
Despite relatively frequent sightings, Australian hunters chasing feral Asiatic buffalo across the steppes fail to get hold of the alleged diprotodons. According to them, animals have incredible ability suddenly disappear from sight, leaving only a cloud of dust in place ...
Bernard Euvelmans
Translated from French by Pavel Trannua
Oviparous - belong to the class of mammals, a subclass of cloacae. Among all known vertebrates, monotremes are the most primitive. The squad got its name due to the presence of a special characteristic among the representatives. Oviparous have not yet adapted to live birth and lay eggs to reproduce offspring, and after the babies are born, they feed them with milk.
Biologists believe that monotremes came from reptiles, as an offshoot of a group of mammals, even before the birth of marsupials and placental animals.
Platypus - a representative of egg-laying
The structure of the skeleton of the limbs, the head section, the organs of the circulatory system, the breathing of the first animals and reptiles is similar. In the fossils of the Mesozoic era, the remains of oviparous were found. Monotremes then inhabited the territory of Australia, and later occupied the South American expanses and Antarctica.
To date, the first animals can only be found in Australia and the islands located nearby.
Origin and diversity of mammals. Oviparous and real animals.
The ancestors of mammals are reptiles of the Paleozoic. This fact confirms the similarity in the structure of reptiles and mammals, especially at the stages of embryogenesis.
In the Permian period, a group of theriodonts, the ancestors of modern mammals, was formed. Their teeth were placed in the recesses of the jaw. Most animals possessed a bony palate.
However, the conditions environment, formed in the Mesozoic era, contributed to the development of reptiles and they became the dominant group of animals. But the climate of the Mesozoic soon changed dramatically and the reptiles failed to adapt to the new conditions, and mammals occupied the main niche of the animal world.
The mammal class is divided into 2 subclasses:
- Subclass First Beasts or Single Pass;
- subclass Real animals.
Real animals and monotremes are united by a number of features: a hairy or spiny outer cover, mammary glands, and a hard palate. Also, the first animals have common characteristics with reptiles and birds: the presence of a cloaca, laying eggs, and a similar skeletal structure.
Detachment Single pass - general characteristics
Echidna is a representative of monotremes Oviparous animals are not large sizes with a flattened body from top to bottom, short limbs with large claws and a leathery beak. They have small eyes and a short tail. In oviparous, the external auricle is not developed.
Only representatives of the platypus family have teeth and they look like flat plates equipped with protrusions along the edge. The stomach is only for storing food; the intestines are responsible for digesting food. The salivary glands are very developed, large, the stomach passes into the caecum, which, together with the urogenital sinus, flows into the cloaca.
The first animals do not have a real uterus and placenta. Reproduction by laying eggs, there is little yolk in them, and the shell includes keratin. The mammary glands have many ducts that open on the ventral side in special glandular fields, since there are no nipples in monotremes.
Body temperature can vary: it does not rise above 36 ° C, but with a significant cooling it can drop to 25 ° C. Echidnas and platypuses do not make sounds, as they lack vocal cords. The life expectancy of echidnas is about 30 years, platypuses - about 10. They inhabit forests, steppes with shrubs and even occur in mountainous areas (at an altitude of up to 2500m.).
Representatives of oviparous have poisonous glands. On the hind limbs there is a bone spur through which a poisonous secret flows. The poison is potent, in many animals it provokes disruption of the vital organs, it is also dangerous for humans - it causes severe pain and extensive swelling at the site of the lesion.
Trapping and hunting for representatives of the detachment is prohibited, as they are listed in the Red Book due to the threat of extinction.
Platypus and Echidna
The platypus and echidna are oviparous, mammals, the only representatives of the order.
A small animal about 30-40 cm long (body), tail up to 15 cm, weighing 2 kg. Males are always larger than females. It lives near water bodies.
Five-fingered limbs are well adapted for digging the ground; on the coast, platypuses dig holes for themselves about 10 meters in length, equipping them for later life(one entrance is underwater, the other is a couple of meters above the water level). The head is equipped with a beak, like a duck (hence the name of the animal).
Platypuses are in the water for 10 hours, where they get food: aquatic vegetation, worms, crustaceans and mollusks. Swimming membranes between the toes on the front paws (almost not developed on the hind legs) allow the platypus to swim well and quickly. When the animal dives under water, the eyes and ear openings close, but the platypus can navigate the water through sensitive nerve endings in its beak. He even has electroreception.
Platypuses bear cubs for a month and give offspring from one to three eggs. First, the female incubates them for 10 days, and then feeds them with milk for about 4 months, and at the age of 5 months, the platypuses, already capable of independent life, leave the hole.
Oviparous mammals also include echidna, found in forests appearance looks like a hedgehog. To obtain food, the echidna digs the ground with powerful claws and, with the help of a long and sticky tongue, receives the necessary food (termites, ants).
The body is covered with spines that protect it from predators; when danger approaches, the echidna curls up into a ball and becomes inaccessible to enemies. The female weighs approximately 5kg and lays an egg weighing 2g. Echidna hides the egg in a bag formed by a leathery fold in the abdominal region and wears it, heating it with its warmth, for two weeks. A newborn cub is born with a mass of 0.5 g, continues to live in the mother's pouch, where it is fed with milk.
After 1.5 months, the echidna leaves the pouch, but continues to live in a hole under the protection of its mother. After 7-8 months, the baby is already able to find food on its own and differs from the adult only in size.