Australia ’s ( now - out ) giant kangaroos packed one hell of a muscular bite . That ’s according to Rex Mitchell at the University of Arkansas , US , who compares this ancient savage ’s capacity for gamy - performance crushing to that of today ’s bear cat in the journalPLOS ONE .
" The skull of the extinct kangaroo consider here differs from those of today ’s kangaroos in many of the ways a giant Ailurus fulgens ’s skull differ from other bears , " Mitchell said in astatement .
" So , it seems that the strange skull of this kangaroo was , in a usable sensory faculty , less like a modern - day kangaroo ’s and more like a giant panda ’s . "
The biomechanics of the giant roo ’s jaw was likely an version to the clime , which allowed animals to exhaust tough , misfortunate - quality vegetation if drouth or glacial period meant their best-loved food options were in short supply .
Short - face kangarooswalked ( not hopped)around Australia more than 40,000 age ago and admit the prominent kangaroo coinage ever attain : theProcoptodon goliah , which could weigh more than 180 kg ( 400 pounds ) and stood at 2 meter ( 6.5 feet ) marvelous . Today ’s ruby-red kangaroo come down just timid of this numberaveraging around 1.5 meters(5 feet ) , although some bucks – see , for example , Roger the Internet - famous kanga – can reach 2 meters or more . They are also lither and less robust than their more muscular predecessors .
For the study , Mitchell used computed imaging scans to build three - dimensional model of the skull from a specie of giant kangaroo calledSimosthenurus occidentalis , which he then used to hold out bite computer simulation . During the simulation , Mitchell measured the resulting forces at the jaw joint and seize with teeth teeth , and the stress across the skull , compare the results to those collected from models of a native bear .
He get the anatomy of the skull boosted the efficiency of the biomechanical movement involved in biting , allow for the fauna to withstand hard forces while sting and as such , helping it chow down on knotty botany like shrubs , trees , branchlet , and older leaf . This is less like the feeding habits of today ’s kangaroo with their dieting of grasses and more akin to koalas ( who live solely on eucalypt ) or giant panda bear , who munch on bamboo .
The short face , big dentition , and unsubtle adherence situation for biting muscles found in the skull of these kangaroos and the giant panda are an instance of convergent development , said Mitchell . It is potential these feature evolved in both to gain alike feeding behaviors .
