spiny anteater 
noun
Another term for echidna.There are only three living monotremes, the duck-billed platypus and two species of echidna, or ‘spiny anteaters’, such as the one shown at right....
- The only living descendants of monotremes are the strange duck-billed platypus of Australia and two species of spiny anteaters, or echidnas.
- The platypus and its relative, the spiny anteater (the echidna), excited his curiosity because they were the only two species left of the egg-laying mammals, the monotremes.