Ironically, it is jumping genes that indicate the need for a reorganization of the kangaroos’ phylogenetic tree. According to a new study by a Senckenberg scientist, published recently in the journal Scientific Reports, the swamp wallaby is more closely related to the remaining wallaby species and the large red and grey kangaroos and wallaroos than previously assumed. Together with her Australian colleagues from QUT in Brisbane, the researcher was the first to examine the relationships within the kangaroo genus Macropus on the basis of retrotransposons, genes that literally jump across the genetic material.