''Megalibgwilia'' is a genus of

echidna Echidnas (), sometimes known as spiny anteaters, are quill-covered monotremes (egg-laying mammals) belonging to the family Tachyglossidae . The four extant species of echidnas and the platypus are the only living mammals that lay eggs and the ...

known only from Australian

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s that incorporates the oldest-known echidna

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

. The genus ranged from the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

until the late

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

, becoming extinct about 50,000 years ago. ''Megalibgwilia'' species were more widespread in warmer and moist climates. The extinction can be attributed to increasing aridification in Southern Australia. ''Megalibgwilia'' was first described from a broken left humerus by Richard Owen in 1884, as ''"Echidna" ramsayi''. Complete

skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, th ...

s and postcranial fossils have since been described. A second species, ''M. robusta'', was described in 1896 by Australian

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

William Sutherland Dun William Sutherland Dun (1 July 1868 – 7 October 1934) was an Australian palaeontologist, geologist and president of the Royal Society of New South Wales. Dun was the son of Major Percy Henderson Dun, formerly of the East India Company's army, a ...

. ''Megalibgwilia'' comes from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

''mégas'' (μέγᾰς) and

Wemba Wemba The Wemba-Wemba are an Aboriginal Australian people in north-Western Victoria and south-western New South Wales, Australia, including in the Mallee and the Riverina regions. They are also known as the Wamba-Wamba. Language Wemba-Wemba bears ...

''libgwil'' (plus the Latin suffix ''-ia''), meaning echidna. Although they are sometimes commonly referred to as giant echidnas, ''Megalibgwilia'' species are thought to have been similar in size to the contemporary

western long-beaked echidna The western long-beaked echidna (''Zaglossus bruijnii'') is one of the four extant echidnas and one of three species of '' Zaglossus'' that occurs in New Guinea. Originally described as ''Tachyglossus bruijnii'', this is the type species of ''Zag ...

, but with slightly longer forearms. They were smaller than a large species known from fossils in Australia, ''

Murrayglossus ''Murrayglossus'' is a genus in the family Tachyglossidae. It contains a single species, ''Murrayglossus hacketti'', the giant echidna, an extinct species of echidna from Western Australia that is dated to the Pleistocene. It is known only fro ...

''. ''M. ramsayi'' fossils have been found in deposits across mainland Australia and on

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

. ''M. robusta'' has only been found in New South Wales.Long, J., Archer, M., Flannery, T. and Hand, S. 2002. ''Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea: One Hundred Million Years of Evolution''.

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...

Press. pp 45–47. . ''Megalibgwilia'' was probably an insect-eater, like the

short-beaked echidna The short-beaked echidna (''Tachyglossus aculeatus''), also called the short-nosed echidna, is one of four living species of echidna and the only member of the genus ''Tachyglossus''. It is covered in fur and spines and has a distinctive snout ...

, rather than a worm-eater like members of ''

Zaglossus The long-beaked echidnas (genus ''Zaglossus'') make up one of the two extant genus, genera of echidnas, spiny monotremes that live in New Guinea; the other being the short-beaked echidna. There are three living species and one extinct species in ...

''. ''M. robusta'' is the oldest-known echidna and the only known

species.

References

External links

* *
Extinct Animals : Megalibgwilia ramsayi
- Reconstructions and skull images from Parks and Wildlife, South Australia {{Taxonbar, from=Q312072 Prehistoric monotremes Miocene mammals of Australia Pliocene mammals Pleistocene mammals Prehistoric mammal genera Fossil taxa described in 1884