![](http://www.ecns.cn/hd/2021/03/25/dabb5de82578443b88a7ab212cd155c1.jpg)
This handout image released by Murdoch University on March 23, 2021, shows preservation of the skull of the newly identified fossil tree-climbing kangaroo (Congruus kitcheneri) from the Nullarbor Plain of Western Australia. (Photo/Agencies)
The most remarkable thing about the nearly perfect fossils was not that they belonged to 40-kilo kangaroos who mysteriously evolved to climb trees. What really startled paleontologists is that southwestern Australia's Nullarbor Plain, site of the discovery, is a treeless shrubland and was thought to be that way even when the newly named Congruus kitcheneri hopped and apparently climbed across its reaches some 50,000 years ago.
![](http://www.ecns.cn/hd/2021/03/25/8d60011d7db84fa3a6a6b9c5fbb4d402.jpg)
This handout image released by Murdoch University on March 23, 2021, shows preservation of the skull of the newly identified fossil tree-climbing kangaroo (Congruus kitcheneri) from the Nullarbor Plain of Western Australia. (Photo/Agencies)
The most remarkable thing about the nearly perfect fossils was not that they belonged to 40-kilo kangaroos who mysteriously evolved to climb trees. What really startled paleontologists is that southwestern Australia's Nullarbor Plain, site of the discovery, is a treeless shrubland and was thought to be that way even when the newly named Congruus kitcheneri hopped and apparently climbed across its reaches some 50,000 years ago.