Procoptodon

Procoptodon is an extinct genus of giant short-faced (sthenurine) kangaroos that lived in Australia during the Pleistocene Epoch. P. goliah, the largest known kangaroo species that ever existed, stood at about 2 m (6.6 ft). They weighed about 200–240 kg (440–530 lb). Other members of the genus were smaller, however; Procoptodon gilli was the smallest of all of the sthenurine kangaroos, standing approximately 1 m tall.

Procoptodon

Paleocolour · CC0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
SthenurinaePBDB
Diet
omnivorePBDB, for Marsupialia
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Marsupialia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Mammalia
Mass
240 kgWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 22 million years on record.

The record covers at least 23.04 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 27.3 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 4 of 121 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 0 of 121 occurrencesPliocene — about 4 of 121 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 113 of 121 occurrencesPleistocene28–27 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.6–4.6 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences4.6–3.7 Mya — about 1 occurrence3.7–2.8 Mya — about 1 occurrence2.8–1.9 Mya — about 26 occurrences1.9–928 ka Mya — about 33 occurrences928 ka–0 Mya — about 54 occurrences23.04 Mya129 ka27.8 Mya0 Mya

121 occurrences of Procoptodon on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

121 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Gambier Limestone — 37.82°S, 140.76°EKatipiri — 27.75°S, 140.73°EKatipiri — 28.38°S, 137.68°E

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The named rock units Procoptodon has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 115 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Procoptodon and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Procoptodon and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

239 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 86 sites for Procoptodon, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

8 references

Each of the 121 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Procoptodon

Credit
Paleocolour
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Procoptodon browneorum · wam:63.2.198

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itSthenurinae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Owen 1874