It is hard to believe but there are a few remaining animals that actually roamed the earth with the dinosaurs. The dinosaurs lived on earth during the Mesozoic Era. This era was divided into three periods: the Triassic, the Jurassic and Cretaceous. The entire Mesozoic Era lasted from about 248 to 65 million years ago. Monotremes are the first mammals to inhabit the earth. Two examples are the Duckbill Playtpus and the Echidna.
Duckbill Playtpus is a mammal from Australia. If is characterized by its unique duckbill which is covered with smooth, black skin. It is about 20 inches long when full-grown. They have webbed feet with sharp digging claws. The male has sharp, spiny spurs on their hind foot that secretes poisonous venom much like a snake. The Duckbill Playtpus is very adept at swimming, digging and diving. It is amphibious and spends much of its time in the water. They dig burrows alongside ponds and streams but mate in the water.
The females lay their eggs in the burrows and seal up the entrance with mud. The females then wrap themselves around the eggs to incubate them. The eggs are small and white with leathery shells and the female usually lay two eggs. In about 10 days, the babies will hatch but the female Playtpus rarely leaves the burrow before this. The young babies lap up milk from glands between folds of the female’s skin that produce milk. They then stay in the burrow until they are about 4 months old.
The Duckbill Playtpus feed on shellfish, insect larvae and worms. The bill has sensory cells that send out an electrical current that allows them to locate their prey.
The Echidna, also called the spiney anteater, is another mammal that inhabited the earth during the Mesozoic Era. The small animal is covered with coarse hair and short spines everywhere except their bellies. They have five toes on each foot with a long, curved claw on each hind foot, which is used to clean between their spines. They can roll up into a ball when threatened.
They have a long, narrow beak-like snout much like an anteater. Some have short beaks and some have long beaks. They also have no teeth but a long sticky tongue. They are small animals with males growing from about 131/2 inches to 171/2 inches long and weighing about 61/2 to 141/2 pounds.
The Echidna is a nocturnal animal, spends nights looking for ants and termites, and then uses the tongue to pull the insects out of the ground. They have a strong sense of smell and hearing but poor eyesight. They can go for long periods without eating.
Female Echidna usually lay one egg but can lay up to three eggs at a time. The females put the baby in a pouch where it then hatches in about ten days. The young nurse inside the pouch until it grows spines. After the spines appear, the female will put the young Echidna in a sheltered area and return every three days to nurse. The female does this until the young is able to find its own food.
Of course, many other types of animals such as birds, sea turtles, crocodiles, alligators and many types of insects lived alongside the dinosaurs. The common cockroach has managed to survive for almost 400 million years. How long with these species continue to survive? No one really can answer that but their length of survival is truly amazing.
