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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: Giant Prehistoric "Kangaroos" Killed Off by Humans


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The 1,000-pound (500-kilogram) prehistoric ground-sloth-like marsupial depicted here—Palorchestes azael—was among a handful of Tasmanian megafauna species driven to extinction by human activity more than 40,000 years ago, new research says.

The August 2008 study challenges previous research suggesting an ice age killed off the giant creatures before humans arrived on the island.

Illustration by Peter Schouten; copyright Peter Schouten