Riversleigh rainforest koala

Riversleigh rainforest koala
Temporal range: middle Miocene
Comparison of N. greystanesi (top) and Litokoala (lower)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Marsupialia
Order: Diprotodontia
Family: Phascolarctidae
Genus: Nimiokoala
Species: N. greystanesi
Binomial name
Nimiokoala greystanesi
Black and Archer, 1997

The Riversleigh rainforest koala (Nimiokoala greystanesi) is an extinct species of marsupial, closely related to the modern koala, though it may not look like a koala, that lived 10–16 million years ago in the middle Miocene of Queensland. It probably had a diet of leaves similar to that of the modern species, but whether it specialized on eucalypt leaves is unknown.[1] It was a third of a modern koala's size, being 25–30 cm long, and the mouth protruded from the skull.[1] To date, a partial skull has been found along with several lower jaws and isolated teeth, containing in aggregate the entire dentition.[1]

References

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