Robin Beck

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April 28, 2025

Echidna ancestors lived watery lifestyles like platypuses 100 million years ago – new study

Sue Hand, UNSW ; Camilo López-Aguirre, University of Toronto; Laura A. B. Wilson, Australian National University, and Robin Beck, University of Salford

A controversial idea suggests the ancestors of echidnas were more like the platypus. For the first time, fossil evidence might support it.

Ramsayia reconstruction (r) next to a modern wombat. Eleanor Pease

December 12, 2022

For the first time ever, we have a complete skull description of a true fossil giant wombat

Julien Louys, Griffith University; Gilbert Price, The University of Queensland; Mathieu Duval, Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), and Robin Beck, University of Salford

80,000 years ago, Australia’s landscape was dominated by much larger versions of today’s marsupials – including enigmatic and enormous wombats.

June 25, 2020

Meet the giant wombat relative that scratched out a living in Australia 25 million years ago

Robin Beck, University of Salford; Julien Louys, Griffith University; Mike Archer, UNSW , and Philippa Brewer, Natural History Museum

The extinct Mukupirna - which translates to ‘big bones’ - is estimated to have been more than four times larger than any living wombat.

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Echidna ancestors lived watery lifestyles like platypuses 100 million years ago – new study

For the first time ever, we have a complete skull description of a true fossil giant wombat

Meet the giant wombat relative that scratched out a living in Australia 25 million years ago

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