Editing Diprotodon (section)

===Gait===
[[File:VVP fossil tracks.png|thumb|upright=1.4|Fossil tracks from the [[Victorian Volcanic Plain grasslands|Victorian Volcanic Plain site]]: a) ''[[Protemnodon]]'', b) ''Diprotodon'' pes, c) ''Diprotodon'' overlain by a [[vombatid]], d) ''[[Thylacoleo]]'']]

The locomotion of an extinct animal can be inferred using [[fossil trackway]]s, which seldom preserve in Australia over the [[Cenozoic]]. Only the trackways of humans, kangaroos, vombatids, ''Diprotodon'', and the diprotodontid ''[[Euowenia]]'' have been identified.<ref name=Camens2009>{{cite journal|first1=A.|last1=Camens|first2=R.|last2=Wells|year=2009|title=Diprotodontid Footprints from the Pliocene of Central Australia|journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology|volume=29|issue=3|pages=863–869|doi=10.1671/039.029.0316|bibcode=2009JVPal..29..863C |s2cid=128776520 |url=http://doc.rero.ch/record/208748/files/PAL_E3968.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170921220511/http://doc.rero.ch/record/208748/files/PAL_E3968.pdf |archive-date=2017-09-21 |url-status=live }}</ref> ''Diprotodon'' trackways have been found at Lake Callabonna<ref>{{cite journal|first=R. H.|last=Tedford|title=The diprotodons of Lake Callabonna|journal=Australian Natural History|volume=17|year=1973|page=354|url=https://museum-publications.australian.museum/aus-nat-hist-1973-v17-iss11/}}</ref> and the [[Victorian Volcanic Plain grasslands]].<ref name=Carey2011>{{cite journal|first1=S. P.|last1=Carey|first2=A. B.|last2=Camens|first3=M. L.|last3=Cupper|first4=R.|last4=Grün|first5=J. C.|last5=Hellstrom|first6=S. W.|last6=McKnight|first7=I.|last7=McLennan|first8=D. A.|last8=Pickering|first9=P.|last9=Trusler|first10=M.|last10=Aubert|year=2011|title=A diverse Pleistocene marsupial trackway assemblage from the Victorian Volcanic Plains, Australia|journal=Quaternary Science Reviews|volume=30|issue=5–6|pages=598–602|doi=10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.11.021|bibcode=2011QSRv...30..591C |hdl=1885/65964|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first1=A. B.|last1=Camens|first2=S. P.|last2=Carey|year=2013|title=Contemporaneous Trace and Body Fossils from a Late Pleistocene Lakebed in Victoria, Australia, Allow Assessment of Bias in the Fossil Record|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=8|issue=1|page=e52957|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0052957 |doi-access=free |pmc=3534647|pmid=23301008|bibcode=2013PLoSO...852957C }}</ref> The diprotodontid manus (forepaw) print is semi-circular and the pes (hindpaw) is reniform (kidney-shaped).<ref name=Carey2011/> Owing to proportionally small digits, most of the weight was borne on the [[carpus]] and [[tarsus (skeleton)|tarsus]]—the bones connecting to respectively the wrist and the ankle. Diprotodontines seem to have had a much-more-erect gait, an adaptation to long-distance travel that is similar to that of elephants, rather than the more-sprawling posture of wombats and zygomaturines, though there are no fossil trackways of the latter to verify their reconstructed standing posture.<ref name=Camens2009/><ref name=Carey2011/>

At Lake Callabonna, the single ''Diprotodon'' responsible for the impressions had an average stride length of {{cvt|1500|mm|ftin|0}}, trackway width of {{cvt|430|mm|ftin|0}}, and track dimensions {{cvt|295x202|mm}} in length x width. The gleno-acetabular length—the distance between the shoulders and pelvis—could have been about {{cvt|1125|mm|ftin|0}}; assuming a hip height of {{cvt|900|mm|ftin}}, the maker of these tracks was probably moving at around {{cvt|6.3|kph}}.<ref name=Camens2009/>

The single ''Diprotodon'' responsible for the impressions at the volcanic plain had an average stride length of {{cvt|1310|mm|ftin|0}}, trackway width of {{cvt|660|mm|ftin|0}}, and pes length of {{cvt|450|mm|ftin|0}}. The gleno-acetabular length may have been about {{cvt|1080|mm|ftin|0}} and assuming a hip height of {{cvt|830|mm|ftin|0}}, the maker of the tracks was probably moving at around {{cvt|5.5|kph}}. Its posture was much-more-sprawled than the example from Callabonna, aligning more with what might be expected of ''Zygomaturus''. The animal may have been a female carrying a large joey in her pouch, the added weight on the stomach altering the gait. The first trackway continues for {{cvt|62.8|m}} in a south-easterly direction towards a palaeo-lake. The animal seems to have hesitated while stepping down from the first [[sand bar]] on its path with the right pes making three overlapping prints here while shuffling around. The trackway vanishes for a {{cvt|20|m}} stretch and reappears while the animal seemingly is stepping on wet sediment. Another diprotodontid trackway appears {{cvt|50|m}} away, moving southerly, which may have been left by the same individual.<ref name=Carey2011/>