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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Graham Readfearn

‘Enormously exciting’ fossils found in NSW opal field suggest Australia had ‘age of monotremes’

Australia Tim Flannery the Australian Museum
An artist’s impression of Australia’s age of monotremes, with the ‘echidnapus’ at bottom right
An artist’s impression of Australia’s age of monotremes, with the ‘echidnapus’ at bottom right. Illustration: Peter Shouten

Some time about 100m years ago in what is now an Australian opal field, a weird, furry, egg-laying, rabbit-sized mammal was gliding through a waterhole across a massive polar floodplain.

This mammal – Opalius splendens, but which scientists have thankfully blessed with the nickname “echidnapus” – was among the ancient descendants of one of the planet’s most unique orders of animals, the monotremes.

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