Murrayglossus
| Murrayglossus Temporal range: Pleistocene | |
|---|---|
| Life reconstruction | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Monotremata |
| Family: | Tachyglossidae |
| Genus: | †Murrayglossus Flannery et al., 2022 |
| Species: | †M. hacketti |
| Binomial name | |
| †Murrayglossus hacketti (Glauert, 1914) | |
| Synonyms | |
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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 1 metre (3.3 ft) long and weighing around 20–30 kilograms (44–66 lb). Historically treated as a species of long-beaked echidnas, 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".