We found three new species of extinct giant kangaroo – and we don’t know why they died out when their cousins survived

By Isaac A. R. Kerr, Research Assistant at Flinders University Palaeontology Laboratory, Flinders University

For millions of years, giant animals or megafauna roamed the lands that are now Australia and New Guinea. Many were like much larger versions of modern animals.

There was a four-metre goanna called Megalania (Varanus priscus), for example, which likely ambushed its prey. This beast disappeared by around 40,000 years ago along with almost all the other megafauna aside from remnants such as the red kangaroo and the saltwater crocodile.

Some of the now-vanished kangaroo species were quite massive. The short-faced kangaroo Procoptodon goliah grew as tall as…

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