Macropus, from the Ancient Greek words ( makrós), meaning "long", and ( pous), meaning "foot", is a marsupial genus in the family Macropodidae. It has two Extant taxon species of large terrestrial . Thirteen known extinct species are recognised. The type species is the eastern grey kangaroo.
Taxonomy
In 2019, a reassessment of macropod taxonomy determined that
Osphranter and
Notamacropus, formerly considered subgenera, should be moved to the genus level.
This change was accepted by the Australian Faunal Directory in 2020.
Extant Species
Fossils
A currently-unnamed
Pleistocene Macropus species from
Australia was the largest kangaroo ever, with an estimated mass of around 274 kg (~604 lb).
Further reading
External links
