Giant kangaroos survived until 6,500 years ago on the New Guinea coast

By Loukas Koungoulos, Laureate Research Fellow, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia
Isaac A. R. Kerr, Research Assistant at Flinders University Palaeontology Laboratory, Flinders University
Sue O'Connor, Distinguished Professor, School of Culture, History & Language, Australian National University

Roughly 50,000 years ago, a kangaroo unlike any alive today lived in the mountain rainforests of New Guinea.

First discovered by Western science in 1983, Protemnodon tumbuna was roughly the size of a modern red kangaroo but much more stocky and muscular. Most peculiarly, it hopped little, if at all. It moved mostly on all fours, with long, strong forelimbs providing support for agile bounding through complex and steep terrain.

This strange animal was one of many megafauna that once roamed Australia…

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