''Protemnodon'' is an extinct

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

megafauna In terrestrial zoology, the megafauna (from Greek μέγας ''megas'' "large" and New Latin ''fauna'' "animal life") comprises the large or giant animals of an area, habitat, or geological period, extinct and/or extant. The most common threshold ...

l macropodids that existed in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

, and

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

in the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

. It is also called the giant

kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

Taxonomy

Recent analysis of

mtDNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA ...

extracted from fossils indicates that ''Protemnodon'' was closely related to ''

Macropus ''Macropus'' is a marsupial genus in the family Macropodidae. It has two extant species of large terrestrial kangaroos. The term is derived from the Ancient Greek μάκρος, ''makros'' "long" and πους, ''pous'' "foot". Thirteen known exti ...

''. The species formerly known as ''Protemnodon bandharr'' and ''Protemnodon buloloensis'' have been moved to a new genus, ''

Silvaroo ''Silvaroo'' is an extinct genus of megafaunal macropods that existed in Australia in the Pleistocene. Based on fossil evidence and affinities with the extant forest wallabies from the genera '' Dorcopsis'' and ''Dorcopsulus'' from Papua New Guin ...

,'' while the New Guinean species ''P. nombe'' has been moved to the new genus '' Nombe.''

Description

Based on

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

evidence, ''Protemnodon'' is thought to have been physically similar to

wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...

, but generally larger and more robust. ''Protemnodon nombe'' was the smallest in the genus, weighing about 45 kg; ''Protemnodon roechus'' was the largest in the genus, weighing around 170 kg. Several species of ''Protemnodon'' survived up until around 50,000 years ago. ''P. tumbuna'' may have survived in the highlands of Papua New Guinea as recently as 12,000 years B.P.

References

Prehistoric macropods Pliocene mammals of Australia Pleistocene mammals of Australia Pliocene marsupials Pleistocene marsupials Prehistoric marsupial genera Taxa named by Richard Owen Fossil taxa described in 1873 {{Diprotodont-stub