A fossil skull fragment from a giant echidna that roamed Victoria during the Ice Age has been identified in museum storage, more than a century after it was collected. The specimen, from the extinct species Megalibgwilia owenii, was found in a tray of unsorted fossils at the Museums Victoria Research Institute.
The Owen's giant echidna lived during the Pleistocene epoch, which began 2.5 million years ago. It grew to about one metre long and weighed up to 15kg, roughly twice the size of Australia's modern echidnas. Previously, fossils of this species had been found across Australia, from Western Australia to Tasmania, but none had been recorded in Victoria.
Tim Ziegler, collection manager of vertebrate palaeontology at the institute, spotted the fragment in a tray of material excavated in 1907 from Foul Air Cave in the Buchan cave complex, East Gippsland. "I remember plucking out this one bone fragment, which isn't much longer than your finger," he said. He recognised features of an echidna beak, noting the symmetry, the arch of the palate, and internal spaces for air passage.
Ziegler first noticed the fossil in 2021, but confirmation required further work, including 3D scans of modern and fossil echidna specimens from museum collections across the country. Historical archives confirmed that the specimen had been collected by museum officer Frank Spry during an expedition to the cave more than a century earlier.
The giant echidna was likely similar in size to today's long-beaked echidnas of New Guinea, but with a more robust skeleton. Ziegler said the bones showed deeper muscle scars and larger ligament attachments, indicating the animal used greater force when interacting with its environment, possibly digging for larvae or tearing bark to access food. The identification fills a 1,000km gap in the species' known distribution. The research was published in Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology.
