Fossils of 'big boned' marsupial shed light on wombat evolution

Mukupirna, discovered in the Lake Eyre basin in 1973, was probably five times the size of living wombats

Fossils of a huge, hairy creature with shovel-shaped hands and unusual teeth could hold clues to the evolution of today's wombats, researchers say.

They say the fossils belong to a new member of a group of marsupials called vombatiforms, and one of the earliest such creatures yet discovered.