Scientists say fossilised teeth from the species have been found at a 25-million-year-old fossil bed south of Alice Springs, in the first-ever record of koalas living in the Northern Territory.
abc.net.au/news/prehistoric-koala-species-found-at-pwerte-marnte-marnte-nt/102818150A new species of prehistoric koala has been identified in the middle of the Northern Territory outback.
Arthur Crichton, Flinders University PhD student and lead author on a report detailing the discovery, said the new species was found along with specimens of two already-identified koalas."Basically, they're from three different species — we found about 10 koala molars.""They're from three different species of koala that would have been living at the same time occupying different niches in the trees."a nod to the configuration of the animals' thorny teeth.
"The shape of the cusps [and] spikes on its molars … the configuration of those structures is really quite unique in the context of koalas.Mr Crichton said the discovery provided clues about the evolution of Australia’s unique marsupials. "We hypothesise that the tooth morphology of this new taxon helps bridge a 30-million-year gap in the fossil record of the marsupial groups that includes koalas, wombats, possums and kangaroos," he said.Until now, there has been no record of koalas ever living in the Northern Territory.
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