Named By: | Richard Owen in 1873 |
Time Period: | Pleistocene |
Location: | Australia |
Size: | 3 meters long |
Diet: | Herbivore |
Fossil(s): | Several specimens |
Classification: | | Chordata | Mammalia | Marsupiala | Diprotodontia | Macropodidae | Sthenurinae | |
Sthenurus ("strong tail") is an extinct genus of kangaroo. With a length of about 3 m (10 ft), some species were twice as large as modern extant species. Sthenurus was related to the better-known Procoptodon. The subfamily Sthenurinae is believed to have separated from its sister taxon, the Macropodinae (kangaroos and wallabies), halfway through the Miocene and then its population grew during the Pliocene.