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.