Researchers find ancient relative of koala in the Northern Territory

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A discovery of fossil teeth has led researchers to conclude that an ancient relative of the koala existed in the northern territory millions of years ago. The fossils found about 1-hundred kilometres south of Alice Springs are believed to bridge a gap in Australian marsupial evolution. The animal is thought to have been smaller than the contemporary koala about the size of a small domestic cat.

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00:00 we sort of hypothesize that these might instead be the earliest known representatives of the group

00:08 that includes koalas, wombats, possums, and kangaroos.

00:12 So this is important from an evolutionary standpoint because

00:17 there's a 30 million year gap in the Australian fossil record

00:22 that goes from about 25 million through to 55 million years ago.

00:26 So if these early Tingamara and marsupials are actually early relatives of things like koalas and wombats,

00:36 then it would extend the fossil record of these iconic Australian marsupials by 30 million years.

00:43 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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