Murrayglossus
Murrayglossus Temporal range: Pleistocene
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Life reconstruction | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Monotremata |
Family: | Tachyglossidae |
Genus: | †Murrayglossus Flannery et al., 2022 |
Species: | †M. hacketti
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Binomial name | |
†Murrayglossus hacketti (Glauert, 1914)
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Synonyms | |
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Murrayglossus is an
Description
At around 1 m (3.3 ft) long and weighing about 20–30 kg (44–66 lb), M. hacketti was the largest monotreme known to have existed.[1][2] M. hacketti had longer, straighter legs than any of the modern echidnas. Augee (2006) speculates that this feature made the animal more adept at traversing through thickly wooded forests.[1] The main diagnostic characteristics of genus Murrayglossus are a set of femoral traits: a low femoral head; the very low position of the lesser trochanter relative to head (situated directly below the internal margin of the femur); the large trochanter that has a high position relative to the head; a flared medial epicondyle; and obliquely oriented condyles.[2]
Discoveries
Fossils of Murrayglossus hacketti were discovered in
Aboriginal rock art found in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory may represent M. hacketti or the extant western long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bruijni).[6][7]
References
- ^ OCLC 65199910.
- ^ S2CID 247542433.
- S2CID 18766417.
- ^ Glauert, Ludwig (1914). "The Mammoth Cave (continued)". Records of the Western Australian Museum and Art Gallery. 1: 244–251.
- .
- ^ Masters, Emma (31 May 2010). "Megafauna cave painting could be 40,000 years old". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 2 June 2010. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
- ^ Gunn, R. C.; Douglas, L. C.; Whear, R. L. (2011). "What bird is that? Identifying a probable painting of Genyornis newtoni in Western Arnhem Land". Australian Archaeology (73): 1–12.
- Long, J. A.; Archer, M.; OCLC 49860159.