Killer Kangaroos Once Roamed Australia

Posted on August 8, 2006

Ten million years ago Australia was a home for terrifying killer kangaroos with razor-sharp teeth that roamed in search of prey. The Daily Mail reports on these sabre-toothed predators.

"This was a very weird place," said Professor Mike Archer, who has led a team into Australia's "fossil land", a region in north west Queensland where stony remains have revealed details of the extraordinary creatures that once roamed the continent.
"None of the kangaroos - and there are about 35 different kinds of extinct 'roos in these deposits - would have looked like anything we would have recognised today," he said.
"They didn't hop. These were galloping kangaroos with big, powerful forelimbs and some had long canines like wolves.
"You might have been looking for Skippy, but you would not have seen Skippy. You would have found his ancestor who would have ended up eating you while you were looking. So it was a very strange world."

University of New South Wales, Dr Sue Hand, told the Daily Mail had slicing crests on their teeth that, "could have crunched through bone and sliced off flesh." The enormous creatures also weighed over 200kg.