Australian Researchers Uncover Prehistoric Koala Species

Researchers have discovered the remains of a new species of prehistoric koala dating back 25 million years in the Australian outback.

In a study published by Flinders University on Thursday, PhD student and lead author Arthur Crichton detailed the discovery of fossil teeth at a site 100 km south of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory (NT) outback.

Analysis of the remains found they were approximately 25 million years old and belonged to a previously unknown species, which has been named Lumakoala blackae.

Crichton said in a media release on Thursday that the new species weighed about 2.5 kg, compared to up to 15 kg for a fully-grown modern koala, and mostly ate soft leaves.

He said the discovery helps fill a 30-million year gap in the evolution of Australia's iconic marsupials.

"Our computer analysis of its evolutionary relationships indicates that Lumakoala is a member of the koala family or a close relative, but it also resembles several much older fossil marsupials called Thylacotinga and Chulpasia from the 55 million-year-old Tingamarra site in northeastern Australia," Crichton said.

"In the past, it was suggested the enigmatic Thylacotinga and Chulpasia may have been closely related to marsupials from South America.

"However, the discovery of Lumakoala suggests that Thylacotinga and Chulpasia could actually be early relatives of Australian herbivorous marsupials such as koalas, wombats, kangaroos and possums."

The teeth were discovered with fossils of two other koala species, the Madakoala and Nimiokoala, that lived in the same time period.

Gavin Prideaux, director of the Palaeontology Laboratory at Flinders University, said in Thursday's release that the discoveries were the first record of koalas ever being in the NT.