Giant Wombat

Scientists in Queensland, Australia just discovered the first complete skeleton of diprotodon. Diprotodon is believed to have been much like a giant wombat, as you can see in this artist’s reconstruction from the Australian Museum, photographed by James King.

For some reason, I had vaguely thought that wombats were rodents, but they are actually marsupials like kangaroos. Despite being adorable, the nocturnal wombats apparently do not make terribly good pets, as they are affectionate when young and grow more aggressive with maturity.

The recent diprotodon fossil find suggests the animal was fourteen feet and three tons. No matter how cute it was, I would think that could be frightening. The giant wombat diprotodon is believed to have coexisted with humans.

Shortlink:

Posted by Amelia G on July 20, 2011. Filed under Headline, Oddities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry