''Macropus'', from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

words μάκρος (''mákros''), meaning "long", and πους (''pous''), meaning "foot", is a

marsupial Marsupials are a diverse group of mammals belonging to the infraclass Marsupialia. They are natively found in Australasia, Wallacea, and the Americas. One of marsupials' unique features is their reproductive strategy: the young are born in a r ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

in the family

Macropodidae Macropodidae is a Family (biology), family of marsupials that includes kangaroos, Wallaby, wallabies, tree-kangaroos, wallaroos, pademelons, quokkas, and several other groups. These genera are allied to the suborder Macropodiformes, containing ...

. It has two

extant Extant or Least-concern species, least concern is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Exta ...

species of large terrestrial

kangaroo Kangaroos are 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 ...

s. Thirteen known extinct species are recognised. The

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

is the

eastern grey kangaroo The eastern grey kangaroo (''Macropus giganteus'': gigantic large-foot; also great grey kangaroo or forester kangaroo) is a marsupial found in the eastern third of Australia, with a population of several million. Although a large ''M. giganteus ...

Taxonomy

In 2019, a reassessment of macropod taxonomy determined that ''

Osphranter ''Osphranter'' is a genus of large marsupials in the family Macropodidae, commonly known as kangaroos and wallaroos (among other species). It contains the largest extant marsupial, the red kangaroo (''O. rufus''). In 2019, a reassessment of mac ...

'' and ''

Notamacropus ''Notamacropus'' is a genus of small marsupials in the family Macropodidae, commonly known as wallabies (among other species). The term is derived from the Latin ''nota'' "stripe" and ''macropus'' "kangaroo", referencing the distinct facial stri ...

'', formerly considered subgenera, should be moved to the genus level. This change was accepted by the

Australian Faunal Directory The Australian Faunal Directory is an online catalogue of taxonomic and biological information on all animal species known to occur within Australia. It is a database produced by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water ...

in 2020.

Extant Species

Fossils

A currently-unnamed

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

''Macropus'' species from

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

was the largest kangaroo ever, with an estimated mass of around 274 kg (~604 lb). * †'' Macropus dryas'' * †'' Macropus gouldi'' * †'' Macropus narada'' * †'' Macropus piltonensis'' * †'' Macropus rama'' * †'' Macropus woodsi'' * †'' Macropus pavana'' * †'' Macropus thor'' * †'' Macropus ferragus'' * †'' Macropus mundjabus'' * †'' Macropus pan'' * †'' Macropus pearsoni'' * †'' Macropus titan'' (or †''Macropus giganteus titan'')

References

External links

* Macropods Marsupials of Australia Marsupial genera Taxa named by George Shaw Extant Miocene first appearances {{Diprotodont-stub bs:Macropus eo:Makropo eu:Macropus gl:Macropus jbo:Macropus sr:Macropus

Taxonomy

Extant Species

Fossils

References

Further reading

External links