The lost koala: new fossil species was hiding in plain sight for 100 years

By Kenny Travouillon, Curator of Mammals, Western Australian Museum; Curtin University
Helen Ryan, Collections Manager (Palaeontology), Western Australian Museum
Kailah Thorn, Project Coordinator (Biodiversity), Western Australian Museum
Natalie Warburton, Associate Professor in Anatomy, Murdoch University

In 2024, the Western Australian Museum received a donation. It was a koala skull collected from Moondyne Cave in Margaret River by Lindsay Hatcher, an avid caver. There was something a bit odd about this skull, and we were able to put our finger in it.

This koala had dimples.

Koalas are iconic on Australia’s east coast, but they are regionally extinct in Western Australia today. Fossils tell a different story: koalas once lived across parts of WA, from the Margaret River region to as far north as Yanchep and as far east as Madura.

In our new study, published…

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