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Not What I Would Call a Kangaroo

By purepedantry on July 23, 2006.

Fanged killer kangaroo fossils discovered:

Forget cute, cuddly marsupials. A team of Australian palaeontologists say they have found the fossilized remains of a fanged killer kangaroo and what they describe as a "demon duck of doom".

A University of New South Wales team said the fearsome fossils were among 20 previously unknown species uncovered at a site in northwest Queensland state.

Professor Michael Archer said on Wednesday the remains of a meat-eating kangaroo with wolf-like fangs were found as well as a galloping kangaroo with long forearms that could not hop like a modern kangaroo.

"Because they didn't hop, these were galloping kangaroos, with big, powerful forelimbs. Some of them had long canines (fangs) like wolves," Archer told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.

Isn't there a point when the kangaroos that have fangs, eat meat, and do not hop cease to be kangaroos? What definition are these guys using for kangaroo?

Tags
evolution

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I would assume that their criteria is that it has all diagnostic external features of a macropod marsupial, but you're right, even up to the order level (Diprotodontia), one of the defining characteristics is herbivory...interesting problem!