🦣 MammalsQuaternaryWell known
Diprotodon
Diprotodon optatum
Diprotodon was the largest known marsupial and a characteristic member of Australia's megafauna.
Image: Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
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Characteristics
- Scientific name
- Diprotodon optatum
- Period
- Pleistocene
- Lived
- 0.125–0.046 Ma (125,000 years ago)
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Habitat
- Plains, Forest
- Length (estimate)
- 3 m
- Mass (estimate)
- 2,500 kg
Description
Diprotodon was a large marsupial with a broad snout, powerful limbs and two large lower incisors. It probably ate leaves and other plants, like its relatives the wombats and koalas. Fossils occur in a range of Australian landscapes and include complete skeletal remains. The precise relationship between its disappearance, climate change and human presence remains debated.
Habitat
Woodlands, grasslands and water-poor regions of Australia.
Fossil sites
Lake Callabonna, South Australia
Cultural profile: Australia →
Contemporaries in the database
Sources: Diprotodon