Scientists in Australia this week unearthed a giant ancient wombat that they say is the same size as a rhinoceros, making it the biggest marsupial to ever live on the continent.
The Wombat, a plant-eating diprotodon is a relative to the modern wombat and is said to have roamed Australia more than 2.5 million years in the past, become extinct just 55,0000 years ago.
AFP reports that the creature is the most complete skeleton of it’s kind anywhere in the world and weighs more than three tons with a length of approximately 14 feet.
According to The Telegraph The Wombat was found in:
The Wombat, a plant-eating diprotodon is a relative to the modern wombat and is said to have roamed Australia more than 2.5 million years in the past, become extinct just 55,0000 years ago.
AFP reports that the creature is the most complete skeleton of it’s kind anywhere in the world and weighs more than three tons with a length of approximately 14 feet.
With such a complete specimen scientists hope to grasp a better understanding of what made them extinct in the first place. Scientists believe that a combination of climate change and human interaction could have left the species wiped out.
“[An] area, on the Leichhardt River between Normanton and Burketown, has been a trove of giant creature fossils. Palaeontologists have been searching there for more than 40 years and have found evidence of Australian megafauna such as giant kangaroos and giant lizards.”
