The biggest carnivorous platypus to date, has been found in Queensland, Australia a press release from The University of New South Wales reported Tuesday.
"Discovery of this new species was a shock to us because prior to this, the fossil record suggested that the evolutionary tree of platypuses was relatively linear one," Dr. Michael Archer of the University of New South Wales, and a co-author of the study said in a statement. "Now we realize that there were unanticipated side branches on this tree, some of which became gigantic."
Rebecca Pian, a PhD candidate at Columbia University and former honors student at UNSW, along with Mike Archer, a professor at UNSW, and Suzanne Hand of the UNSW School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences spotted the species.
"A new platypus species, even one that is highly incomplete, is a very important aid in developing understanding about these fascinating mammals," Pian said in a statement.
Scientists previously thought there was only a single platypus living on earth at a time before Tursday since the species were decreasing in size, and their teeth shrinking.
"Like other platypuses, it was probably a mostly aquatic mammal, and would have lived in and around the freshwater pools in the forests that covered the Riversleigh area millions of years ago," Hand said in a statement. Obdurodon tharalkooschild was a very large platypus with well-developed teeth, and we think it probably fed not only on crayfish and other freshwater crustaceans, but also on small vertebrates including the lungfish, frogs, and small turtles that are preserved with it in the Two Tree Site fossil deposit."
The animal nowadays does not have teeth, and instead has pointy pads in its mouth which makes scientists also believe the species did not come from their ancestors, and are therefore not the same as those with teeth the press release reported.
