Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Diprotodontia > Phascolarctidae > Phascolarctos > Phascolarctos stirtoni

Phascolarctos stirtoni (giant koala)

Wikipedia Abstract

The giant koala (Phascolarctos stirtoni) is an extinct arboreal marsupial which existed in Australia during the Pleistocene epoch. Phascolarctos stirtoni was about one third larger than the contemporary koala, P. cinereus, and has had an estimated weight of 29 lb (13 kg), which is the same weight as a large contemporary male koala. Although considered a part of the Australian megafauna, its body mass excludes it from most formal definitions of megafauna. It is better described as a more robust koala, rather than a "giant"; in contrast, a number of Australian megafauna, such as Diprotodon and Procoptodon goliah, were unambiguously giants.The two koala species co-existed during the Pleistocene, occupying the same arboreal niche. The reason for the extinction of the larger of the two about 50
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Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0