Osphranter rufus(Diprotodontia: Macropodidae)

Abstract

Osphranter rufus (Desmarest, 1822) is a macropod commonly called the red kangaroo and is the largest extant marsupial. Sexually dimorphic in size and coat color, this large macropod is one of four species in the genus Osphranter. In general, males are larger than females, and are reddish-brown in color, whereas females are bluish-gray. O. rufus is endemic to Australia, where it inhabits both arid and semiarid areas with wide habitat preferences that include open plains, open desert, grassland, woodland, or shrubland habitats. Although it is regularly harvested for its meat and hide, O. rufus is an abundant species that is not of special conservation concern and it is listed as “Least Concern” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

Differential developmental rates and demographics in Red Kangaroo (Osphranter rufus) populations separated by the dingo barrier fence

“…The largest extant native herbivore in Australia, the red kangaroo (Osphranter rufus), is directly affected by the dingo barrier fence because it is a primary prey species of the dingo (Shepherd 1981;Marsack and Campbell 1990). Commonly found in the semiarid and arid zones across Australia (Richardson 2012;Freedman et al 2020), geographically isolated populations exist on either side of the dingo barrier fence, sometimes within few kilometers of each other (Caughley et al 1980;Pople et al 2000). Red kangaroos tend to be more abundant where dingo control is highest (Dawson et al 2022), and differences in red kangaroo population densities on either side of the fence are well-documented (Caughley et al 1980;Pople et al 2000;Letnic and Koch 2010;Morris and Letnic 2017).…”

Mitogenome of the Extinct Desert ‘Rat-Kangaroo’ Times the Adaptation to Aridity in Macropodoids

“…Nevertheless, the precise divergence timings of the major extant clades are ambiguous, as are the possible drivers behind their adaptive radiations [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] . Macropodoids (Macropodiformes: Macropodoidea) ¾ the group encompassing living kangaroos, wallaroos, wallabies, pademelons and tree-kangaroos (Macropodidae), bettongs and potoroos (Potoroidae), the Musky rat-kangaroo (Hypsiprymnodon moschatus: Hypsyprymnodontidae), and their stem antecedents 14 ¾ incorporate some of the most distinctive Australian arid zone marsupials, as epitomised by the famous Red kangaroo, Osphranter rufus 15 . The well-documented fossil record of this and other 'true kangaroos' (Macropodini) has been used to correlate arid zone macropodoid evolution with the expansion of intracontinental grasslands during the Pliocene and Pleistocene, from ~3-4 Ma 3,9,12 .…”