Litokoala

Litokoala is an extinct genus of marsupials, and along with Nimiokoala, is closely related to the modern koala. The three genera may have diverged at an earlier date, although the drying of the continent and the expansion of Eucalyptus forests towards the late Miocene may have delayed the evolution of cranial features unique to the modern genera. This indicates that either fossil genus could be an ancestor of the modern genus, or the modern genus has a common ancestor to both. More material needs collection to improve their taxonomical relationships.

Litokoala

Apokryltaros · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
PhascolarctidaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Phascolarctidae
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Marsupialia
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Mammalia

Time the record covers

At most 22 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 27.3 Mya and 5.333 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Oligocene — about 4 of 7 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 3 of 7 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 7 occurrences28–27 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences27–26 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences26–26 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences26–25 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences25–24 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences24–23 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences22–22 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences19–19 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences12–12 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.4–8.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences8.7–7.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.9–7.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.1–6.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.4–5.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.6–4.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences27.8 Mya4.8 Mya

7 occurrences of Litokoala on record, most of them in the Oligocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

7 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

4 formations

Etadunna — 28.76°S, 138.40°EEtadunna — 28.38°S, 138.30°EZone E — 27.71°S, 140.39°ESystem B — 19.01°S, 138.67°EWipajiri — 27.75°S, 140.73°E

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The named rock units Litokoala has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Litokoala and its relatives

Oligocene

Where Litokoala and its relatives were recorded in the Oligocene.

Found in the same rock

64 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Litokoala, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

4 references

Each of the 7 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Litokoala

Credit
Apokryltaros
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Litokoala was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itPhascolarctidae through timeFormations of the OligoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Stirton et al. 1967