We found the only kangaroo that doesn’t hop – and it can teach us how roos evolved their quirky gait
From The Conversation (20/3/25)…
We found the only kangaroo that doesn’t hop – and it can teach us how roos evolved their quirky gait
In the remnant rainforests of coastal far-north Queensland, bushwalkers may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a diminutive marsupial that’s the last living representative of its family.
The musky rat-kangaroo (Hypsiprymnodon moschatus) weighs only 500 grams and looks a bit like a potoroo. It’s part of a lineage that extends back to before kangaroos evolved their distinctive hopping gait.
Unlike their bigger relatives, muskies can be seen out and about during the day, foraging in the forest litter for fruits, fungi and invertebrates.
As the only living macropodoid (the group that includes kangaroos, wallabies, potoroos and bettongs) that doesn’t hop, they can provide a crucial insight into how and when this iconic form of locomotion evolved in Australia.
Our study, published in Australian Mammalogy today, aimed to observe muskies in their native habitat in order to better understand how they move.
Why kangaroos are special
If we look around the world, hopping animals are quite rare. Hopping evolved once in macropodoids, four times in rodents, and probably once in an extinct group of South American marsupials known…
Muskies can sometimes be seen foraging for fallen fruit in the leaf litter in the dense rainforests of far northern Queensland. Aaron Camens
