Protemnodon brehus

Protemnodon brehus is an extinct macropodin kangaroo that was first described by Sir Richard Owen in 1874. The species was widespread across southern Australia in the Pleistocene, becoming extinct around 40,000 years ago. It was a large, robust kangaroo, probably hopping considerably slower and less efficiently than the modern red and grey kangaroos.

Specimen number: SAMA P13027
Skeletal element: cranium
Geological age: Pleistocene
Locality/site: Curramulka Town Well Cave
State/territory: South Australia

A partial skull of Protemnodon brehus from Curramulka Town Well Cave, Yorke Peninsula, SA. Photo by I. A. R. Kerr 2019.
A partial skull of Protemnodon brehus from Curramulka Town Well Cave, Yorke Peninsula, SA. Photo by I. A. R. Kerr 2019.

Owen, R. (1874) VIII. On the fossil mammals of Australia.—part VIII. Family Macropodidæ: genera Macropus, Osphranter, Phascolagus, Sthenurus, and Protemnodon. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 164, 245–287.

Bartholomai, A. (1973) The genus Protemnodon Owen (Marsupialia: Macropodidae) in the upper Cainozoic deposits of Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 16, 309–363.

© VAMP - Virtual Australian Museum of Palaeontology