Richard Owen's skeletal reconstruction of Megalania as a giant relative of the modern thorny devil. He reconstructs it as a massive lizard with small spikes along its back and tail, spiky limbs and a boxy head with two large horns above the eyes and a smaller nosehorn like that of a rhino.
An illustration of the holotype skull of Ninjemys owen in sideview. The eyes are located far to the front, the back of the head is bumpy with multiple bosses and horns and the nose has a forward-facing horn above the nose. Owen assumed that it also had a more rhino-like nose horn , though this is no longer thought to be the case.
A little meiolaniid fun fact. When Richard Owen was sent a skull of the turtle Ninjemys (identified as a turtle by the discoverer), he for some reason assumed that it belonged to Megalania, causing him to reconstruct the animal as a giant thorny devil.
#Paleontology #Ninjemys #Megalania
