An echidna the size of a small child roamed Victoria tens of thousands of years ago, research released today reveals.
An Ice Age fossil found 120 years ago in an underground cave has helped unlock the mystery of the giant mammal and its place in the megafauna era.
The extinct Megalibgwilia owenii grew up to a metre long and weighed 15kg – as much as a four-year-old toddler.
Its name combines the Ancient Greek “mega”, meaning great or mighty, with the Wemba Wemba word “libgwil”, meaning echidna.
The giant echidnas lived in south-eastern Australia during the Pleistocene Epoch.
Museums Victoria Research Institute scientists Tim Ziegler and Jeremy Lockett announced the results in the Australasian palaeontology journal Alcheringa.
They identified the extinct Owen’s Giant Echidna among fossils collected at “Foul Air Cave” in Buchan, Victoria.
“The fragmentary skull, thought to have been among the first megafauna fossils retrieved from the renowned Buchan Caves, fills a gap of over 1000km between previous finds,” the resource report said.
“Fossils of Megalibgwilia owenii, which was first described in detail in the 1990s, had previously been found scattered across the continent from Western Australia into Tasmania and southern New South Wales.
“The giant echidna’s seeming absence from Victoria was a conundrum, given the region’s suitable habitat and rich fossil localities.”
The fossil was found “laying in plain sight” in Museums Victoria’s Palaeontology Collection. It was retrieved in a 1907 expedition to the cave by museum officer and naturalist Frank Spry.
“Over a century ago, Spry along with scientists and locals investigated Buchan’s caves with little more than ropes and kerosene lamps, and they inspired us to carry on their work,” Mr Ziegler said.
“Previous research by Museums Victoria has shown the Buchan Caves preserve an exceptional record of Australia’s unique megafauna, including the short-faced kangaroo Simosthenurus occidentalis and the giant marsupial Palorchestes azael.
The paper, The first Victorian record of Owen’s Giant Echidna Megalibgwilia owenii from Buchan Caves in East Gippsland, Australia, by Tim Ziegler and Jeremy Lockett, is published in Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology(2026).
