Researchers from the University of Australian Flinders reported that they discovered 3 new species of kangaroo, who, according to estimates, lived in Australia from 5 to 40 thousand years ago.
According to ABC News, in an article published in the journal Megataxa, researchers from the University of Flinders discovered 3 new types of kangaroo from the extinct family “Primnodon” when compared finds from various museums with fossils found in the area of Lake Callabon in South Australia.
New species are called “Protemnodon Viator”, “Protemnodon Mamakurra” and “Protemnodon Dawsonae”. “Viator”, which weighs 170 kilograms, is considered the largest of three very different types.
– Viator looks like a red kangaroo, but with a slightly thicker bones and more muscular
Leading researcher Dr. Isaac Kerr said that for this study they studied fossils in 14 collections of 4 different Museums of Great Britain, the USA and the island of New Guinea for more than 5 years.
Kerr took detailed photos of these fossils and conducted a 3D scan. He stated that Protemnodon Viator, which is considered the largest of three types, could live in the area of large lakes and rivers in Central Australia. “He looks like a red kangaroo, but with a slightly thicker bones and more muscular,” the scientist noted.
Kerr compared the Protemnodon Dawsonae, the least known of the three types, with the Valabi, a variety of “swamp kangaroo” or “little kangaroo”.
The news article says that the type of “Protemnodon Mamakurra” could live on the southern coast of Australia, in the mountains of Tasmania and on the east coast of the new South Wales (NSW), it emphasizes that this species “is more prone to movement on the arms and legs, and not to jump “.
The reason for the extinction of these types of kangaroo has not yet been established.