Hopping as a method of high-speed endurance wasn\u2019t used by all large kangaroos <\/p>

Think of Australia\u2019s iconic kangaroos and you\u2019ll probably think of them hopping along with their large and muscular back legs, a method of locomotion known as saltation.<\/p>\n

More related content:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
How and why do kangaroos hop?<\/a><\/p>\n
How many legs does a kangaroo have?<\/a><\/p>\n
Why female kangaroos have pouches<\/a><\/p>\n
New on Earth: Baby Animals in the Wild<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/p><\/div> <\/section>
The team analysed the limb and ankle bones of modern and fossil species from the past 25 millions years, and found that there were a diversity of adaptations locomotion across the large kangaroos, weighing over 20kg, that emerged in the late Miocene.<\/p>\n
The extinct short-faced kangaroos (the sthenurines) used bipedal striding, the extinct giant wallabies (the protemnodons, a genus closely related to modern kangaroos) mostly traversed on all four limbs, and the ancestors of modern kangaroos became specialised for high-speed endurance hopping.<\/p>\n
$\""Illustration\"$ <\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>