00:02We had four species in total that were around in the Pleistocene, so the time from 2.5 million
00:13years ago to maybe 50,000 years ago. And three of those species went extinct quite recently,
00:22and we left with only one species today. Yeah. And so when were these dimpled
00:27specimens found and where? So they were found in caves all the way
00:34the south-west, so Margareva regions, Yanchep, and also in Madura, near the Nellabor Plain.
00:42And over what period have they been found? The very first material that was collected was
00:50from caves in Margareva in 1909, so over a hundred years ago. And the material's been
00:58accumulated in the museum all this time, but most of it was jaws, and it was really hard to
01:04really study that material until the skulls were found. And when these were donated a couple of years
01:12ago, we noticed those differences from the East Coast koala and got us to research those.
01:18Yeah. And so just explain for us how the skulls differ.
01:24So on the front, on the cheeks, so I've got a 3D print of it here. There's a dimple there,
01:34a groove where there would be a muscle attachment there that would control the lips and the nose.
01:40And this is not present in the East Coast koala at all. And that's one of the main features that
01:48we noticed. But you could see also in the pictures you showed earlier that there's no elongation of
01:53the skull like in the East Coast koala. And there's also differences in the teeth. They were larger in
01:59comparison. And there was other differences in the skeleton as well, which looked like the animal was
02:07a bit more gracile and less agile than our modern koalas. But had bigger cheeks?
02:16Yes, we think they were way cuter. All things in WA are cuter. But their brains were smaller.
02:28They were roughly the same size as the koalas in Victoria. But yeah, way cuter.
02:35OK, and so what was it like when you got these new specimens just in the last couple of years,
02:41and you were able to solve this mystery that started back in 1909?
02:47It was pretty incredible. And it got me to start going caving. So then to try and find if we
02:53can
02:53find more specimens. And I actually came back last week from a trip to Margaret River, and we brought
02:58back one more skull. So we keep finding new things all the time.
03:03Yeah. And so what was it like for you in that moment when you found this new skull? And was
03:09that
03:09deep in a cave somewhere? Yeah, it was two and a half hours in the cave. So you have to
03:17be crawling
03:18and lifting yourself up. It was pretty challenging. Where's the video of that?
03:26It's too busy trying to actually get through the holes than actually filming yourself.
03:33But I found it, it was lying on the car site. And from, I suspect a lot of people that
03:39have been in
03:40that cave before and missed it because the angle of it, you couldn't tell it was a skull. And when
03:45you
03:45looked at it, it's only been staring at those skulls for the last two years. So I was able to
03:49recognize
03:50it. And then we freed it from the car site and were able to pick it up. And it was
03:56really
03:59extraordinary to be able to see it up close.
04:02Wow. And so did you have to dig into the car site to get the skull out? Or like,
04:08to what extent did you have to dig or was it kind of just sitting there?
04:13It was a very thin layer of car site. So with just a hammer, I was able to crack it
04:19and just release
04:20the skull from it. It was lucky that it was just on the edge of it. So it was quite
04:26an easy way to
04:28retrieve it. And so how old do you think that specimen is?
04:33Well, that's a good question. I don't know. But I suspect it's older than 28,000,
04:39because that's the youngest one we've had. And after that, no more koalas in WA.
04:45Yeah. And so why did they die out? Why did the WA koala, the cute WA dimpled koala die out?
04:54So researchers had done some pollen work in the southwest caves, and they found out that
05:01there was basically before 28,000 eucalypt forests like there are today. And then around that point
05:09in time, there was a drawing event that took out 95% of the forest. So 5% of the
05:16forest left,
05:16it's not enough to sustain koalas. So they would be hiding any shelter, any food. And so that would
05:23have caused the extinction. And that lasted about 10,000 years before the forest came back,
05:29that the way it is today. And Kenny, you've got quite the French surname. How does a man with a
05:35surname like that and a French accent end up in WA researching koalas and finding out wonderful
05:41stories about the history of koalas? You can blame my parents for deciding to move to Australia
05:49nearly 30 years ago. And then I fell in love with a foreigner in Australia, studied in Sydney at the
05:57University of New South Wales, became a mammal expert and got a job in WA.
06:02And now a caving expert as well, huh? Yes. And so you're going to be back down some more
06:09caves pretty soon looking for more fossils of these koalas? I'm always looking out for new bones
06:17in case there is a new species. You don't know what you're going to find until you get there. And
06:23even though a lot of these caves have been explored for the last 100 years by many,
06:27many people, sometimes having just an expert in there, having the eye for certain bones,
06:34you can find something new. So I'll keep exploring and maybe we'll find more.
06:39So
06:40do
06:40you
06:41do
06:41do
06:41do
06:41do
06:41do
06:41do
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