Australian scientists discover ancient 'echidnapus'

A team of scientists in Australia has made a fascinating discovery in the opal fields of New South Wales. They have found the fossils of a bizarre creature, which they have named 'echidnapus', along with evidence of several other ancient and now extinct monotreme species. The new species, officially named Opalios splendens, has been nicknamed for its resemblance to the platypus and echidna, which are the only egg-laying mammals in the world today. According to lead author Professor Tim Flannery, this discovery indicates that Australia once had an 'age of monotremes' when these incredibly rare animals were abundant and dominant. The fossils were actually found about 25 years ago by palaeontologist Elizabeth Smith and her daughter Clytie while they were going through the discards of an opal mine. They donated the specimens to the Australian Museum, where they remained forgotten in a drawer until about two years ago. Professor Flannery, a mammalogist, stumbled across them and immediately recognized that they were from ancient monotremes. Some of the bones belonged to the already-discovered Steropodon galmani, a shorter, stumpier, and toothier ancestor of the platypus. But the other fragments were unfamiliar. From them, Dr. Flannery and his team discovered evidence of three species previously unknown to science.