Sthenurus stirlingi Wells & Tedford, 1995
Systematics: Mammalia Marsupialia Diprotodontia Macropodiformes Macropodidae Sthenurinae
Size: 3 m long
Type Horizon and Locality: Lake Callabonna Fossil Reserve, Middle Pleistocene, South Australia, Australia
Type Specimen: SAM P22533, nearly complete skeleton of an adult
The short-faced kangaroos such as Procoptodon and Sthenurus diverged from the modern kangaroos branch sometimes during the Miocene and disappeared during the Pleistocene with the rest of the Australian megafauna. The species Sthenurus stirlingi was a giant, reaching 3 m.
September 18, 2017
References:
Wells, R. T., & Tedford, R. H. (1995). Sthenurus (Macropodidae, Marsupialia) from the Pleistocene of Lake Callabonna, South Australia. Bulletin of the AMNH; no. 225.
All illustrations on this site are copyrighted to Nobu Tamura. The low resolution versions of the images are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution- ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license meaning that you are free to use them as long as you properly credit the author (© N. Tamura). High resolution versions are available upon request. Questions: contact me at nobu dot tamura at yahoo dot com.