{{Short description|Extinct species of monotreme}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}} {{Speciesbox | fossil_range = {{fossil range|2.58|0.0117}}Pleistocene | image = Zaglossus hacketti A6 digital.jpg | image_caption = Life reconstruction | genus = Murrayglossus | parent_authority = Flannery ''et al.'', 2022 | species = hacketti | authority = (Glauert, 1914) | synonyms = *''Zaglossus hacketti'' <small>Glauert, 1914</small> }}
'''''Murrayglossus''''' is an extinct genus of echidna from the Pleistocene of Western Australia. It contains a single species, '''''Murrayglossus hacketti''''', also called '''Hackett's giant echidna'''. Though only from a few bones, researchers suggest that ''Murrayglossus'' was the largest monotreme to have ever lived, measuring around {{convert|1|m|ft}} long and weighing around {{convert|20|-|30|kg|lb}}.<ref name = "Augee2006">{{cite book|author1=Augee, M. L.|author2=Gooden, B.|author3=Musser, A.|title=Echidna: Extraordinary Egg-laying Mammal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2UQH-YrWwCYC&pg=PA18|date=January 2006|pages= 18–20|publisher=Csiro Publishing|isbn= 978-0-643-09204-4|oclc= 65199910}}</ref><ref name="Flannery 2022"/> Historically treated as a species of long-beaked echidnas,<ref name = "Augee2006" /><ref name="Siegal1999">{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1016/S0306-4522(98)00588-0| pmid = 10336087| title = Sleep in the platypus| journal = Neuroscience| volume = 91| issue = 1| pages = 391–400| date = June 1999| last1 = Siegel| first1 = J. M.| last2 = Manger| first2 = P. R.| last3 = Nienhuis| first3 = R.| last4 = Fahringer| first4 = H. M.| last5 = Shalita| first5 = T.| last6 = Pettigrew| first6 = J. D.| pmc = 8760620| s2cid = 18766417| url = http://www.uq.edu.au/nuq/jack/PlatypusSleep.pdf| archive-date = 8 November 2020| access-date = 29 August 2015| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201108094232/http://www.uq.edu.au/nuq/jack/PlatypusSleep.pdf| url-status = dead}}</ref> it was separated into its own genus ''Murrayglossus'' in 2022. The generic name combines the last name of paleontologist Peter Murray and ''glossus'', the Greek word for "tongue".<ref name="Flannery 2022">{{Cite journal |last1=Flannery |first1=T. F. |last2=Rich |first2=T. H. |last3=Vickers-Rich |first3=P. |last4=Ziegler |first4=T. |last5=Veatch |first5=E. G. |last6=Helgen |first6=K. M. |year=2022 |title=A review of monotreme (Monotremata) evolution |journal=Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=3–20 |doi=10.1080/03115518.2022.2025900 |s2cid=247542433 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2022Alch...46....3F }}</ref>
==Description== thumb|left|Restoration of a feeding individual At around {{convert|1|m|ft|abbr=on}} long and weighing about {{convert|20|-|30|kg|lb|abbr=on}}, ''M. hacketti'' was the largest monotreme known to have existed.<ref name = "Augee2006" /><ref name="Flannery 2022"/> ''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.<ref name = "Augee2006" /> 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.<ref name="Flannery 2022"/>
==Discoveries== Fossils of ''Murrayglossus hacketti'' were discovered in Mammoth Cave, Western Australia, and excavated in 1909. They were found mixed with the remains of other taxa such as ''Sthenurus'' and ''Macropus''. Australian paleontologist Ludwig Glauert described the fossils in a 1914 publication. The specific epithet ''hacketti'' honours John Winthrop Hackett, "as a slight acknowledgement of his generous support which alone rendered the exploration of these caves possible.".<ref name="Glauert 1914"/> The material is poor, mostly vertebra and leg bones, and the cranial material is completely absent, making ''M. hacketti'''s historical classification into the genus ''Zaglossus'' uncertain.<ref name = "Augee2006" /> Some of the fossils have incisions and burn marks, suggesting that ''M. hacketti'' was at least occasionally hunted by humans.<ref name = "tandfonline">{{cite journal | doi = 10.1080/03115518008619643 | title = Incisions, breakages and charring, some probably man-made, in fossil bones from Mammoth Cave, Western Australia | journal = Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology | volume = 4 | issue = 2 | pages = 115–131 | year = 1980 | last1 = Archer | first1 = Michael | last2 = Crawford | first2 = Ian M. | last3 = Merrilees | first3 = Duncan | bibcode = 1980Alch....4..115A }}</ref>
Aboriginal rock art found in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory may represent ''M. hacketti'' or the extant western long-beaked echidna (''Zaglossus bruijni'').<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/31/2913350.htm |title=Megafauna cave painting could be 40,000 years old |work=ABC News |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |date=2010-05-31 |access-date=2023-12-07 |first=Emma |last=Masters |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100602024139/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/31/2913350.htm |archive-date=2010-06-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first1=R. C. |last1=Gunn |first2=L. C. |last2=Douglas |first3=R. L. |last3=Whear |title=What bird is that? Identifying a probable painting of ''Genyornis newtoni'' in Western Arnhem Land |journal=Australian Archaeology |issue=73 |year=2011 |pages=1–12 |url=https://www.academia.edu/4802548}}</ref>
==References== {{Portal|Paleontology}} {{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="Glauert 1914">{{cite journal |last1=Glauert |first1=Ludwig |year=1914 |title=The Mammoth Cave (continued) |journal=Records of the Western Australian Museum and Art Gallery |volume=1 |pages=244–251 |url=https://museum.wa.gov.au/research/records-supplements/records/vol1-part-3-1914-p509941}}</ref>
}} * {{cite book|last1=Long|first1=J. A.|last2=Archer|first2=M.|last3=Flannery|first3=T.|author3-link= Tim Flannery|last4=Hand|first4=S.|title=Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea: One Hundred Million Years of Evolution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=92yhnRHdxSoC |year= 2002|page= 107|publisher= Johns Hopkins University Press|isbn= 978-0-8018-7223-5|oclc= 49860159}}
{{Mammalia|Y.}} {{Taxonbar|from=Q2300807}}
Category:Pleistocene mammals of Australia Category:Prehistoric monotremes Category:Fossil taxa described in 2022 Category:Taxa named by Tim Flannery