Giant Kangaroos: Could They Really Hop?

In the past, Australia was home to massive kangaroos. These giants weighed up to 250kg. That's way more than today's biggest kangaroos, which max out at 90kg. Scientists have been wondering if these big guys could hop like their smaller cousins. Hopping is a big deal for kangaroos. It helps them move fast and save energy. But hopping puts a lot of stress on their legs. The Achilles tendon, a key part of hopping, can only handle so much. If a kangaroo gets too big, the tendon might snap. A team of researchers decided to look into this. They studied fossils from different types of giant kangaroos. These included sthenurine kangaroos, which lived between 13 million and 30, 000 years ago, and Protemnodon, which lived between 5 million and 40, 000 years ago. The team focused on two things: the strength of the Achilles tendon and the strength of the fourth metatarsal bone. This bone is the least strong in the hindlimb. If it can't handle the stress, hopping isn't possible.The results were interesting. All the giant kangaroos had strong enough bones to support hopping. They also had enough space in their heel bones for thick tendons. This means they could have hopped, even if it wasn't as efficient as modern kangaroos. Some scientists think thicker tendons might make hopping harder. But the researchers disagree. They point to kangaroo rats, which have thick tendons but still hop. So, it's possible giant kangaroos hopped too. But did they really hop? The study can't say for sure. It only shows that hopping was possible. Giant kangaroos might have hopped sometimes, but not always. They probably used different ways to move, like walking on their tiptoes. Understanding how giant kangaroos moved is important. It helps us figure out why they went extinct. If we know what they were like, we can better understand their world and what happened to them.