Macropus Explained

Macropus, from the Ancient Greek words (makrós), meaning "long", and (pous), meaning "foot", is a marsupial genus in the family Macropodidae. It has two extant species of large terrestrial kangaroos. Thirteen known extinct species are recognised. The type species is the eastern grey kangaroo.

Taxonomy

In 2019, a reassessment of macropod taxonomy determined that Osphranter and Notamacropus, formerly considered subgenera, should be moved to the genus level.^[1] This change was accepted by the Australian Faunal Directory in 2020.^[2]

Fossils

A currently-unnamed Pleistocene Macropus species from Australia was the largest kangaroo ever, with an estimated mass of around 274 kg (~604 lb).^[3]

• †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)

Further reading

• Speare, R. and Thomas, A.D. (1988), Orphaned kangaroo and wallaby joeys as a potential zoonotic source of Salmonella spp... Medical Journal of Australia. June 1988 . 148. 619–623. 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1988.tb116333.x. 23290403 . Speare . R. . Thomas . A. D. . subscription .

External links

• Web site: Macropus Shaw, 1790 . Atlas of Living Australia .

Notes and References

1. Celik . Mélina . Cascini . Manuela . Haouchar . Dalal . Van Der Burg . Chloe . Dodt . William . Evans . Alistair . Prentis . Peter . Bunce . Michael . Fruciano . Carmelo . Phillips . Matthew . 28 March 2019 . A molecular and morphometric assessment of the systematics of the Macropus complex clarifies the tempo and mode of kangaroo evolution . Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society . 186 . 3 . 793–812 . 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlz005 . 1 March 2020.
2. Web site: Names List for MACROPODIDAE, Australian Faunal Directory. Australian Biological Resources Study, Australian Department of the Environment and Energy. 1 March 2020. 13 February 2020.
3. Hocknull. Scott A.. Lewis. Richard. Arnold. Lee J.. Pietsch. Tim. Joannes-Boyau. Renaud. Price. Gilbert J.. Moss. Patrick. Wood. Rachel. Dosseto. Anthony. Louys. Julien. Olley. Jon. 2020-05-18. Extinction of eastern Sahul megafauna coincides with sustained environmental deterioration. Nature Communications. en. 11. 1. 2250. 10.1038/s41467-020-15785-w. 32418985 . 7231803 . 2020NatCo..11.2250H . 2041-1723. free.