Overview
- A peer-reviewed study confirms a seven-centimeter skull from Foul Air Cave as Owen’s giant echidna, giving Victoria its first verified record and closing a 1,000-kilometer gap in the range.
- The bone entered the state collection after a 1907 Buchan cave trip led by museum officer Frank Spry, then sat for about 120 years until Tim Ziegler linked it to that haul using old notes and maps in 2021.
- Researchers matched the fragment with specimens in other museums and found traits unique to Megalibgwilia owenii, a one-meter, 15-kilogram egg-laying mammal with a long beak and powerful forelimbs.
- The find points to a more continuous southern spread for the species and prompts fresh checks of old drawers plus new surveys to map Ice Age echidna diversity.
- Foul Air Cave is a natural trap that caught Pleistocene animals, and its holdings at Melbourne Museum show how careful curation and local cavers can revive long-overlooked fossils.