Some ancient kangaroos ‘skipped’ hopping, finds new study

The study is a review of fossil evidence of kangaroos and their relatives from the last 25 million years. It presents new analyses of limb bone and ankle bone metric data of these fossils, adding weight to the hypothesis that not all kangaroos hopped, according to the University of Bristol.

The researchers suggest that the rapid “speed-endurance hopping,” which is common amongst large modern kangaroos. This method was probably rare or absent in most but a few large-bodied families of kangaroos.

Hopping did seem to originate early in kangaroo evolution, but mostly in small-bodied species. When the larger kangaroos emerged, there were many different options–their bodies could become specialised for endurance hopping, like the ancestors of modern kangaroos, or adapt to other forms of movement at higher speeds, which was prevalent in two main extinct lineages.

The protemnodons, which are also called “giant wallabies,” are closely related to modern large kangaroos but they mostly walked around on all fours instead of hopping. The sthenurine, known as “short-faced kangaroos,” split from modern kangaroos around 15 million years ago. They adopted a two-legged stride at all speeds.