Procoptodon

Procoptodon
Temporal range: Pleistocene
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Artist's impression of Procoptodon goliah
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Marsupialia
Order: Diprotodontia
Family: Macropodidae
Subfamily: †Sthenurinae
Genus: †Procoptodon
Owen, 1873
Species
  • P. browneorum (Merrilees, 1968)
  • P. cegsai (Pledge, 1992)
  • P. gilli (Merrilees, 1968)
  • P. goliah (Owen, 1845) (type species)
  • P. maddocki (Flannery & Hope, 1984)
  • P. mccoyi (Turnbull, Lundelius & Tedford, 1992)
  • P. oreas (De Vis, 1895)
  • P. otuel Owen, 1874
  • P. pusio Owen, 1874
  • P. rapha Owen, 1874
  • P. texasensis Archer, 1978
  • P. williamsi Prideaux, 2004

Procoptodon is a genus of giant short-faced kangaroo living in Australia during the Pleistocene epoch.

P. goliah was the largest kangaroo known to have existed. It stood about 2 m (6.6 ft) tall. They weighed about 200–240 kg (440–530 lb). Other members of the genus were smaller. Procoptodon gilli was the smallest of the genus, only about 1 m (3 ft 3 in) tall.

They were browsers, not grazers like kangaroos today. They ate leaves from trees and shrubs. Their weight makes it likely that they did not hop as their relatives do today. A combination of climate change (cooling and shrinking of forest areas) would have reduced their natural habitat. Predation (hunting) by aboriginal humans probably happened.

Saltbushes were their main food source, so Procoptodon goliah relied on free-standing water to help process its salt-laden diet.

References

  1. ↑ Haaramo, M. (2004-12-20). "Mikko's Phylogeny Archive: Macropodidae - kenguroos". Archived from the original on 2007-03-31. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
  2. ↑ "Procoptodon goliah". Australian Museum. Retrieved 2012-03-22.
  3. ↑ Janis CM; Buttrill K. & Figueirido B. 2014. Locomotion in extinct giant kangaroos: were sthenurines hop-less monsters?". PLoS ONE. 9 (10): e109888.
  4. 1 2 Prideaux G.J. et al 2009. Extinction implications of a chenopod browse diet for a giant Pleistocene kangaroo. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 106 (28): 11646–11650. doi:10.1073/pnas.0900956106. Archived 2018-06-03 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ Field, Judith and Wroe, Stephen. 2012.Aridity, faunal adaptations and Australian late Pleistocene extinctions[permanent dead link]. World Archaeology. '44,' 1, p 56–74.