Hidden for Decades: Museum Drawer Yields 25-Million-Year-Old Giant Wombat Fossils That Rewrite History
“The overwhelming sense I had was confusion,” said Louys. “Because I could see it was something unique and important, but I couldn’t place it.”
Louys couldn’t place the remains as they belonged to a yet unidentified member of the Vombatiformes order, which include wombats and koalas. Not only did his research yield the discovery of an ancient animal — but it filled in a long-missing link in the Vombatiformes family.
Julien LouysThe badly fragmented fossilized skull did retain the animal’s teeth, which helped identify the species.
“It was the teeth that really pinpointed to me that this was a missing piece,” he said. “Sometimes it just takes a fresh pair of eyes to look through an old collection.”
Mukupirna lived in the Lake Eyre Basin of Australia 25 million years ago. Luoys and his team of international researchers believe the animal was between four to five times larger than modern-day wombats — and weighing between 315 and 377 pounds.
The species got its name from the languages of Dieri and Malyangapa peoples, with Mukupirna translating to “big bones,” but its teeth are what first attracted attention.
“The form of the teeth is unlike any that we’ve ever seen in any other group of marsupials,” said co-author Mike Archer of the University of New South Wales.
While the animal is substantially larger than its wombat cousin, the Mukupirna surprisingly had much weaker teeth. When the Mukupirna walked the earth, Australian grasslands had not yet evolved, so it subsisted on a diet of softer plants.
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