Giant wombat, a prehistoric animal of Australia, was the largest marsupial that ever lived. A marsupial is a mammal that gives birth to tiny, undeveloped young. After birth, these young make their way to the mother’s pouch, where they feed on her milk. The animal’s scientific name is Diprotodon << dy PROH tuh don >>. The oldest Diprotodons are known from fossils around 1.5 million years old.
The largest adult males stood about 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall at the shoulder. They reached up to 12 1/2 feet (3.8 meters) in length and weighed nearly 6,600 pounds (3,000 kilograms), about the size of a rhinoceros. Females were around two-thirds the size of males. Diprotodon had large front teeth that grew continuously. It also had tall, grinding cheek teeth to eat a variety of tough grasses and shrubs.
Diprotodon was part of a large and diverse group of giant marsupials that lived in ancient Australia. This group is called the diprotodontids. Diprotodon was one of the last surviving members of the group. It died out between 50,000 and 30,000 years ago. Diprotodon went extinct along with many other large land animals, called megafauna. Scientists do not know why the megafauna of Australia died out. Some think that early humans hunted them to extinction. Other scientists think that the megafauna died off as a result of climate change. Many agree that several factors may have combined to cause megafauna extinctions in Australia and elsewhere.
Although Diprotodon was a relative of modern wombats and koalas, it was not a true wombat. A true giant wombat called Phascolonus lived in Australia at the same time as Diprotodon. This animal ate grass and was much smaller than Diprotodon.
See also Giant kangaroo.
