Phascolarctos stirtoni

The giant koala is an extinct arboreal marsupial which existed in Australia during the Pleistocene epoch. Phascolarctos stirtoni was about one-third larger than the contemporary koala, P. cinereus, and has an estimated weight of 13 kg (29 lb), which is the same weight as a large contemporary male koala.

Phascolarctos stirtoni

A. C. Tatarinov · CC0 · via Wikidata/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
PhascolarctosPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Phascolarctidae
Life habit
arborealPBDB, for Phascolarctos
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Mammalia

Time the record covers

At least 2.8 million years on record.

The record covers at least 3.6 Mya to 774 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Miocene — about 0 of 3 occurrencesPliocene — about 1 of 3 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 2 of 3 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 3 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.7–3.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.7–2.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.2–972 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences972 ka–778 ka Mya — about 0.1 occurrences778 ka–583 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences583 ka–389 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences389 ka–194 ka Mya — about 0.3 occurrences194 ka–0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.6 Mya774 ka5.8 Mya0 Mya

3 occurrences of Phascolarctos stirtoni on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. 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

3 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

1 formation

Chinchilla Sand — 26.75°S, 150.63°E

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The named rock units Phascolarctos stirtoni 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.

Phascolarctos stirtoni and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Phascolarctos stirtoni and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

48 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Phascolarctos stirtoni, 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

2 references

Each of the 3 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. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Phascolarctos stirtoni

Credit
A. C. Tatarinov
Licence
CC0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Phascolarctos stirtoni 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 itPhascolarctos through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bartholomai 1968