{"id":38941,"date":"2024-05-29T14:21:37","date_gmt":"2024-05-29T12:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/c56581b6-6f1f-476d-a633-5e6a7607da11"},"modified":"2024-05-29T15:28:44","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T13:28:44","slug":"bizarre-prehistoric-animal-that-was-half-platypus-half-echidna-discovered-in-australia","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/bizarre-prehistoric-animal-that-was-half-platypus-half-echidna-discovered-in-australia\/","title":{"rendered":"Bizarre prehistoric animal that was ‘half-platypus, half-echidna’ discovered in Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists have nicknamed the new species ‘echidnapus’ and say the egg-laying mammal lived in Australia around 100 million years ago. <\/p>

By Daniel Graham\n <\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 29 May 2024 at 12:21 PM<\/p>

\n\n

The fossilised remains of an ancient egg-laying mammal<\/strong> discovered 25 years ago in Australia have been identified by scientists as the oldest known platypus and a new species<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>

Officially named\u00a0Opalios splendens<\/em>, the species has been dubbed ‘echidnapus’ after its resemblance to the platypus and echidna \u2013 the only two monotremes (egg-laying mammals) that live today. <\/p>

The scientists also found evidence of several other ancient and now extinct monotreme species.<\/p>

“It\u2019s like discovering a whole new civilisation,\u201d says Professor Tim Flannery, lead author of the study, which was published in\u00a0Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>

The remains were found 25 years ago at Lightning Ridge in New South Wales, Australia. Credit: Professor Tim Flannery et al.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
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Finding echidnapus<\/h2>
The fossils \u2013 which date to the Cenomanian Age of the Cretaceous Period, between 102 million to 96.6 million years ago \u2013 were found a quarter of a century ago by palaeontologist Elizabeth Smith and her daughter Clytie in the Lightning Ridge opal fields in New South Wales. <\/p>
Smith donated the specimens to the Australian Museum<\/a>, where they sat in a drawer until about two years ago when Professor\u00a0Flannery and his colleague Professor Kris Helgen (Chief Scientist and Director of the Australian Museum Research Institute) found them.<\/p>
Some of the remains belonged to\u00a0Steropodon galmani<\/em>, an ancestor of the platypus already known to science. However, the other fossils were unfamiliar and lead to the discovery of three previously unknown species.<\/p>
The anatomy of echidnapus would have been similar to that of the platypus, according to the scientists. Credit: Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>
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\u201cDiscovering these new fossils is the first indication that Australia was previously home to a diversity of monotremes,” says Flannery.<\/p>
Opalios splendens<\/em>, or echidnapus, was one of the most striking of the new monotremes identified,\u00a0says Professor Helgen.<\/p>
\u201cOpalios splendens\u00a0<\/em>sits on a place in the evolutionary tree prior to the evolution of the common ancestor of the monotremes we have today. Its overall anatomy is probably quite like the platypus, but with features of the jaw and snout a bit more like an echidna \u2013 you might call it an \u2018echidnapus\u2019,\u201d explains Professor Helgen.<\/p>
The jaw and snout of echidnapus may have been similar to that of an echidna, explains Professor Helgen. Credit: Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>
Professor Flannery adds that echidnas that live today have no teeth, while platypuses are toothless. \u201cAdult platypus have no teeth, though juveniles have rudimentary molars. Just when and why adult platypus lost their teeth after nearly 100 million years is a mystery we think we have solved. It may have been competition with the Australian water rat, which arrived in Australia within the last 2 million years, which caused platypus to seek out softer, slipperier food best processed with the leathery pads that adults use today.<\/p>
\u201cWhat is so unusual about this uniquely Australian story is that in one snapshot we see six different egg-laying mammals living together in Lightning Ridge over 100 million years ago. <\/p>
“All of them are holding potential evolutionary destinies that can go off in different directions, and all of them are deep distant ancestors and relatives of the current living monotremes.\u201d<\/p>
Smith, who discovered the fossils 25 years ago, says \u201copal fossils are rare, but opalised monotreme fossils are infinitely more rare, as there\u2019s one monotreme fragment to a million other pieces. We don\u2019t know when, or exactly where, they\u2019ll turn up.<\/p>
\u201cThese specimens are a revelation. They show the world that long before Australia became the land of pouched mammals, marsupials, this was a land of furry egg-layers \u2013 monotremes. It seems that 100 million years ago, there were more monotremes at Lightning Ridge than anywhere else on earth, past or present.”<\/p>
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