Watercolour painting of a platypus by John Lewin (1808)
A fossil from a giant platypus, thought to have lived 15 million years ago, has been discovered in Australia.
“Godzilla platypus” may be somewhat of an exaggeration, but the prehistoric mammal is believed to have grown to as large as a metre in length, double the size of its modern relative.
However, paleontologist from the University of South Wales unearthed just a single fossilised tooth of Obdurodon tharalkooschild in the Riversleigh fossil beds in northwest Queensland, and so could not describe exactly how the platypus would have looked.
In the study, published in the Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology, the researchers found that unlike the modern platypus which has sharp, horny pads, Obdurodon tharalkooschild had fully functional teeth and would have likely consumed a vast array of animals living near water holes. This also means that the evolution of the platypus was not as linear as had previously been believed.
