Researchers have shed new light on the fossil remains of a huge bear-sized marsupial that once toured Australia.
The partial skull and most of the skeleton were found in central Australia in 1973. New analysis has revealed that the creature, which lived 25 million years ago, is a new family of marsupials. Experts have named it Mukupirna nambensis, which means “Big bones” in the Aboriginal languages Dieri and Malyangapa.
The research is published in the journal Scientific Reports.
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Experts from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Griffith University in Brisbane, Salford University in the United Kingdom, the London Museum of Natural History and the American Museum of Natural History in New York participated in the research.
Artist’s impression of Mukupirna nambensis.
(Image: Peter Schouten / University of New South Wales)
“An analysis of Mukupirna‘s evolutionary relationships reveal that although it was more closely related to wombats, it is as different from all known wombats as it is from other marsupials, that it had to be placed in its own unique family, “explains the University of New South Wales at Sydney . statement.
University of New South Wales professor Mike Archer, co-author of the article, was part of the original team that discovered the remains in the clay soil of Lake Pinpa in 1973.
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“It was an extremely fortuitous discovery because in most years the surface of this dry lake is covered by sand washed away or washed away by the surrounding hills,” he said in the statement, adding that the remains of the giant marsupial were found in the clay. . deposits
“We found it by probing the flat, dry surface of the lake with a thin metal pole, like acupuncturing the skin of Mother Earth,” Archer explained. “We only dug down into the clay if the post made contact with something hard below the surface, and in this case it turned out to be the articulated skeleton of a more mysterious new creature.”
Mukupirna, he observed, was similar in size to the modern black bear. Despite its size, the creature’s teeth indicate that it only subsisted on plants, prompting researchers to describe it as a “gentle giant.”
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Australia continues to reveal new aspects of its prehistoric history. The discovery of huge prehistoric footprints, for example, has shed new light on what has been described as Australia’s “Jurassic Park”.
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In another project, a paleontologist in Australia identified an unusual “toothless” dinosaur.
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