The study, published in the journal Plos One, is a detailed comparison between the size and shape of the bones found in living kangaroo species and those of the sthenurines, which died out some 30,000 years ago.Something completely different
This extinct family ranged in size from quite small animals, around 1m tall, to the mighty Procoptodon goliah, which stood at a towering 2m and weighed 240kg - heavier than an adult male lion.
Kangaroos today walk short distances with the help of their forelimbs
Compared to today's kangaroos they were extremely stocky, with a much shorter snout and only one toe on their hind feet rather than four. Instead of grazing, they used specialised arms to browse for food in trees and shrubs.
"We've known for a while that sthenurines were different in their dietary behaviour," said lead author Prof Christine Janis, a palaeontologist at Brown University in the US.
"But the idea that they might have used a different kind of locomotion has not been thought about."
The idea of a walking giant roo first dawned on Prof Janis 10 years ago, when she was looking at their bones in a Sydney museum.-READ MORE-http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29603578
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