Procoptodon the Giant Short Faced Kangaroo

Procoptodon the Giant Short Faced Kangaroo

Procoptodon or the Short Faced Kangaroo was a giant compared to modern kangaroos.  Some paleonotologists once thought it may have been up to 3 meters or 9.8 feet tall.   More recent evidence say it was about 2 meters or 6.6 feet tall.  It was on Earth from around a million years ago to 10,000 years ago.  The Australian Aborigines have stories of this long armed giant kangaroo.  The Aborigines may have been in Australia for 60,000 years.  I guess if it used its arms to reach up into a gum tree Procoptodon would have been 3 meters tall.  Or at least its reach was 3 meters or 9.8 feet up.  That is what the Short Faced Kangaroo is doing in this drawing.  

The Short Faced Kangaroo weighed 200-240 kg or 440-530 lbs.  Its Genus name means Forward Hill Tooth.  There were more than one species.  Procoptodon goliah was the biggest.  It was named by Sir Richard Owen.  Sir Richard Owen was the greatest anatomist of his day.  Owen came up with the name "dinosaur."  He was a contemporary of Charles Darwin.  The species name of goliah may refer to the giant named Goliath from the story of David and Goliath in the Bible.  

The Short Faced Kangaroo method of locamotion is debateable.  Some paleontologists think it could jump huge distances in one hop.  But newer studies say it had too stiff of spine to jump like modern kangaroos and it may have walked bipedal like us.. . like humans.  

To compare, the biggest living kangaroo is the Red Kangaroo.  The male Red Kangaroo can weigh up to around 91 kg or 200 lbs.  They can jump 9 meters or about 30 feet in one jump.  

(Modern) Kangaroos in the Australian Bush