Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The red kangaroo (Osphranter rufus [5]) is the largest of all kangaroos, the largest terrestrial mammal native to Australia, and the largest extant marsupial.It is found across mainland Australia, except for the more fertile areas, such as southern Western Australia, the eastern and southeastern coasts, and the rainforests along the northern coast.
A male red kangaroo Red kangaroos, Liverpool Plains, Sydney, c. 1819. Kangaroos are marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern grey kangaroo, and western grey kangaroo. [1]
P. goliah, the largest known kangaroo species that ever existed, stood at about 2 m (6.6 ft). [3] They weighed about 200–240 kg (440–530 lb). [4] Other members of the genus were smaller, however; Procoptodon gilli was the smallest of all of the sthenurine kangaroos, standing approximately 1 m (3 ft 3 in) tall.
The largest known kangaroo was an as yet unnamed species of Macropus, estimated to weigh 274 kg (604 lb), [54] larger than the largest known specimen of Procoptodon, which could grow up to 2 m (6 ft 7 in) and weigh 230 kg (510 lb). [55]
Scientists have identified three new species of giant kangaroo that lived from 5 million to 40,000 years ago, one of which is around double the size of the biggest kangaroos alive today.
In the middle of the day, kangaroos rest in the cover of the woodlands and eat there but then come out in the open to feed on the grasslands in large numbers. [12] The eastern grey kangaroo mainly graze a wide variety of grasses [21] compared to other species (e.g. the red kangaroo) that also include significant amounts of shrubs in their diet.
Osphranter is a genus of large marsupials in the family Macropodidae, commonly known as kangaroos and wallaroos (among other species). It contains the largest extant marsupial, the red kangaroo (O. rufus).
This is especially so in Australia, which lost 90% of its large species by 40,000 years ago, more than half of them kangaroos. Determining causation has been obstructed by a poor understanding of ...