Kangaroo (Latin Macropus) - a group of
marsupial mammals kangaroo
family.Representatives of this group are
common in Australia, some in New Guinea and
nearby islands. They were first described by
James Cook, who in April 1770 went up to the
north-east coast of Australia. They were the
first to see Cooke at the newly opened land, so
it was that Australia was for the rest of the
world "country of kangaroos."
The name comes from the word kangaroo
"kanguroo" or «gangurru», the name of this
animal is one of the languages of the
Australian Aborigines (Pama-nyungskoy
language family), heard from the natives James
Cook during his landing on the north east
coast of Australia in 1770
Widespread myth, according to which James
Cook arrived in Australia, he turned to one of
the natives to the issue of the name he had
seen the animal, but he did not understand
the speech Cook replied in his own language:
"I do not understand." As the myth that
phrase, which supposedly sounds like
"kangaroo", and took the name of Cook for the
animal. Groundlessness of this myth is
confirmed by modern linguistic research.