Procoptodon
| Procoptodon | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Procoptodon |
||||||||||||
| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Pleistocene | ||||||||||||
| approx. 1.8 million years to approx. 50,000 years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Procoptodon | ||||||||||||
| Owen , 1874 | ||||||||||||
Procoptodon was a genus of large, extinct kangaroos . The animals lived in Australia until the late Pleistocene and produced the largest known kangaroos in geological history.
features
The short- snouted kangaroo Procoptodon is characterized above all by its enormous body size and the very short snout. The largest species of the genus, and at the same time the largest known kangaroo at all, was Procoptodon goliah from the late Pleistocene. This species reached a height of about 2 to 3 m when erect. The body weight was about 230 kg. Procoptodon's hind legs were greatly elongated and had a single large main toe that developed from the fourth toe. There was only a rudimentary fifth toe left. This adaptation is vaguely reminiscent of the development of horses , which in the course of their evolution also regressed all but one toe. It is assumed that this enabled high escape speeds to be achieved. The complex, high-crowned teeth indicate that the animals ate very rough plant-based food.
Types and distribution over time
The genus Procoptodon is only known from the Pleistocene. The last representatives disappeared at the end of this epoch in the course of the Quaternary extinction wave , which also killed numerous other large mammals in Australia. Among the last species were Procoptodon goliah and Procoptodon texasensis . Other species were Procoptodon rapha and Procoptodon pusio .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c J. Long, M. Archer, T. Flannery and SJ Hand: Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea: One Hundred Million Years of Evolution. University of New South Wales, Kensington 2002, pp. 161-162
- ↑ KM Helgen, RT Wells, BP Kear, WR Gerdtz, and TF Flannery: Ecological and evolutionary significance of sizes of giant extinct kangaroos. Australian Journal of Zoology, 54, pp. 293-303, 2006 doi : 10.1071 / ZO05077