Palaeontology

Fossil of world's largest kangaroo discovered

By T.K. Randall
May 22, 2020

Image: Kangaroo at the Hoenderdaell Animal Park in Anna Paulowna
Credit: René Cortin / CC BY-SA 4.0 (adapted) When the first human settlers arrived in Australia up to 50,000 years ago, they would have shared this strange new world with a variety of enormous marsupials and giant reptiles that were some of the largest land animals since the time of the dinosaurs.

Now a team of palaeontologists from the University of Melbourne and Queensland Museum have added two more species to the mix following a new fossil discovery at South Walker Creek.

One - a kangaroo weighing 274kg and standing 2.5 meters tall - was the largest kangaroo of all time.

The other - a lizard measuring 6 meters in length - would have been the size of a small car.Both were thought to have lived in the region around 40,000 years ago.

"While the rest of the world had giant carnivores like sabre-toothed cats, bears, and hyenas, Australia's predators were mostly giant reptiles, including an extinct freshwater croc around seven meters long, a relation to the modern saltwater crocodile, and a land-dwelling crocodile," said palaeontologist Scott Hocknull from Queensland Museum.

"The megafauna at South Walker Creek were uniquely tropical, dominated by huge reptilian carnivores and mega-herbivores that went extinct around 40,000 years ago, well after humans arrived onto mainland Australia."

"We cannot place humans at this 40,000-year-old crime scene, we have no firm evidence. Therefore, we find no role for humans in the extinction of these species of megafauna."

Source: Australian Times

Tags: Australia