Case file · Cryptid
The Murrumbidgee bunyip skull
In January 1846 a settler took a strange skull from the Murrumbidgee near Balranald; local Aboriginal people reportedly called it a bunyip. It was put on show at the Australian Museum in 1847.
1846 CE · -34.64, 143.56 · status: explained
The account
Explorer William Hovell examined it and called it a 'katen-pai'. During its two days on display, the Sydney Morning Herald reported, visitors began claiming their own sightings.
The sceptical view
W. S. Macleay and Richard Owen identified it in 1847 as the deformed foetal skull of a foal or calf.