<
https://theconversation.com/the-lost-koala-new-fossil-species-was-hiding-in-plain-sight-for-100-years-281433>
"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 today in
Royal Society Open Science, we show
these WA koalas were not simply stray populations of the modern koala. They
represent a distinct species that has been hiding in plain sight for more than
a century."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
