Giant marsupials twice as heavy as polar bears used to roam Australia

Enormous marsupials weighing twice as much as the average polar bear used to roam the plains of Australia, a study has found.

Following detailed examination of more than 60 fossils, researchers have determined that the creatures boasted very muscular front legs ideal for grabbing and scraping at leaves and branches. These were helped by huge elbow joints fixed at an angle of around 100 degrees, meaning they were permanently flexed for the purpose of gathering food.Scientists at Monash University, led by Hazel Richards, have said that the so-called palorchestid marsupials also had large claws and unusual tapir-like skulls, with tiny eyes and a powerful tongue similar to that of a giraffe.

The giant herbivores are believed to have lived in eastern Australia for much of the past 25 million years, going extinct at around the time of the end of the Ice Age about 11,700 years ago.Some of them weighed more than 1,000kg - more than twice as much as the average polar bear at 450kg and almost 40 times heavier than another marsupial, the wombat, at 30kg.

Researchers already knew of their existence, but the new study published in the journal PLOS One is the first to have taken such a thorough look at its body and determined just how large they could be.

God, I’ve seen it all now. Palaeolithic fat shaming

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