Extinct giant kangaroos didn't hop - they walked

摘要

They had faces like rabbits and some were 2 metres tall. But now it seems that an extinct giant kangaroo didn't hop - it walked. Known as "short-faced giant kangaroos", sthenurines roamed Australia for 12.5 million years before being wiped out 30,000 years ago. No one knows what killed off these relatives of modern kangaroos, although they may have struggled as Australia's climate grew more arid. Unlike kangaroos today, these ancient giants walked just like us. "All our evidence fits with these animals leaning on one leg at a time, like humans," says Christine Janis of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.