Hidden for Decades: Museum Drawer Yields 25-Million-Year-Old Giant Wombat Fossils That Rewrite History
Ever wonder what happens when a fossil sits forgotten for nearly half a century, only to resurface and rewrite the family tree of an entire group of marsupials? Well, that’s exactly the curious tale of Mukupirna nambensis—a giant, extinct wombat cousin with teeth so soft it probably wouldn’t have lasted a day in today’s grassy fields. The irony here? The paleontologist who first uncovered this prehistoric puzzle back in 1973 never got the chance to study it; fate handed the baton to his former student, Julien Louys, who stumbled upon these dusty bones hidden in a New York museum drawer a decade ago. Talk about a cosmic game of scientific tag! With fresh eyes and some serendipity, Louys and his team have peeled back the layers of time, revealing a creature four to five times the size of modern wombats yet surprisingly delicate in its meals. It’s like finding a heavyweight boxer with the diet of a picky toddler. This discovery not only fills a long-standing gap in the Vombatiformes lineage but also reminds us that sometimes, history’s greatest secrets are just waiting for the right person to dust them off and say, “Hold on a minute…” LEARN MORE
The paleontologist who first discovered the fossil died before he could study it. Now, one of his former students has picked up where he left off.
Peter SchoutenMukupirna nambensis had very soft teeth compared to modern wombats, as grasslands in Australia hadn’t developed yet — and they fed on softer plants.
About 10 years ago, paleontologist Julien Louys accidentally discovered the fossils of a giant extinct wombat cousin. Left behind in the collection drawers of New York’s American Natural History Museum, they had been collecting dust since 1973.
According to ABC Australia, they’ve now finally gotten a closer look. Published in the journal of Scientific Reports, the study identifies the fossils as a 25-million-year-old animal dubbed Mukupirna nambensis. However, when he first discovered the large unidentified fossil, Luoys was thoroughly perplexed.
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