Megalibgwilia is a genus of echidna known only from Australian fossils that incorporates the oldest-known echidna species. The genus ranged from the Pliocene until the late Pleistocene, becoming extinct about 50,000 years ago. Megalibgwilia species were more widespread in warmer and moist climates. Their extinction can be attributed to increasing aridification in Southern Australia.
Megalibgwilia is a genus of echidna known only from Australian fossils that incorporates the oldest-known echidna species. The genus ranged from the Pliocene until the late Pleistocene, becoming extinct about 50,000 years ago. Megalibgwilia species were more widespread in warmer and moist climates. Their extinction can be attributed to increasing aridification in Southern Australia.
Megalibgwilia was first described from a broken left humerus by Gerard Krefft in 1868 as "Echidna" owenii. In the past, many researchers didn't recognize that "Echidna" ramsayi named by Richard Owen in 1884 represents a junior synonym, though recent studies have reevaluated this. Complete skulls and postcranial fossils have since been described. A second species, M. robusta, was described in 1895 by Australian paleontologist William Sutherland Dun. Megalibgwilia comes from Greek mégas (μέγᾰς) and Wemba Wemba libgwil (plus the Latin suffix -ia), meaning echidna.
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