Giant Kangaroos' Weight at 375 Pounds and Limited Roaming Likely Led to Their Extinction

Giant Kangaroos' Weight at 375 Pounds and Limited Roaming Likely Led to Their Extinction

Unlike massive mammals, mega marsupials 300,000 years ago limited their dining options by keeping close to home.

Ancient Giant Kangaroos Were Homebodies, New Study Concludes, Contributing To Their Extinction

It’s wonderful to imagine kangaroos almost four times the size of big reds hopping around ancient Australia, but this lot probably didn’t hop, and certainly not far.

Giant extinct kangaroos were probably homebodies

Ancient giant kangaroos stayed close to home and went extinct when climate change caused that home to disappear, according to Aussie researchers who say they were astounded to find these roos had a much smaller foraging range than expected based on their size and weight. The researchers analysed the teeth of the 170kg roos from ancient rainforest deposits at Mt Etna Caves in central Queensland, and found a match only to local limestones, rather …