![\"Sara](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Sara_-_Headshot_thumbnail.png\")
<\/p>\nThe new study found that they lost their arboreal habitat due to a drying climate, a dire warning for the modern-day marsupials that face a similar threat<\/p>\n
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Sara Hashemi<\/a><\/p>\n | Daily Correspondent<\/p>\n May 18, 2026 2:17 p.m.<\/p>\n Artist’s reconstruction of newly described koala species.\u00a0 Beyond the kangaroos, wallabies and emus, Australia is famed for its iconic, seemingly cuddly koalas, even though the marsupials live only on the continent\u2019s eastern and southeastern coasts. \u00a0About 28,000 years ago, the animals had a relative perching in trees on the west coast, but it was always thought to be of the same species (Phascolarctos cinereus) that lives today. Now, a new study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science<\/a> on May 6 reveals that the region was actually home to a distinct koala species they named Phascolarctos sulcomaxilliaris.<\/p>\n The study began with a koala skull donated to the Western Australian Museum in 2024. It had been found in a cave in the town of Margaret River. Researchers at the museum noticed that the fossil had unusual characteristics\u2014namely, dimples. No modern skulls in the museum\u2019s collection had this feature. That \u201cgot us to start working on the fossil material in the collection,\u201d says Kenny Travouillon<\/a>, a study co-author and paleontologist at the museum, to James Woodford at New Scientist<\/a>.<\/p>\n This led Travouillon and his colleagues to examine 98 bones from fossil specimens across the museum\u2019s collection. They compared the fossils with modern koala skeletons using detailed skull and tooth measurements and other evolutionary analyses. They found that koala fossils from Western Australia differ significantly enough from their eastern counterparts to be a distinct species.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cThey had shorter heads, for sure, and they seem to have less-well-developed chewing muscles than the east-coast koalas,\u201d says Travouillon to New Scientist. \u201cBut they simply chewed in a different way by having larger teeth and having a more efficient, shorter jaw to break down the leaves.\u201d<\/p>\n Fun facts: Three things to know about koalas<\/p>\n
Their bones were also thinner than modern koalas, he adds to Peter de Kruijff at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation<\/a>. This suggests the koalas had less muscle and were possibly less agile. \u201cSo they spent less time moving between trees and stayed put as much as possible,\u201d Travouillon explains.<\/p>\n To find out what happened to these dimpled koalas, researchers conducted uranium-thorium dating of the new fossils and radiocarbon dating of the others. This suggested that the animals likely went extinct about 28,000 years ago. This timing coincides with a major climate event that made Western Australia drier and colder, according to pollen records.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe there was some fires \u2026 and there’s nothing for them to grow back with because there’s not enough water in the system,\u201d Travouillon says to ABC. \u201cThe forest disappeared.\u201d Without food and shelter, the koalas went extinct.<\/p>\n![\"artist's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/artist-s-reconstruction-of-the-new-western-australian-fossil-koala-species-nellie-peasetmb-960.jpg\")
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\n WA Museum \/ Nellie Pease<\/p>\n
\n\tKoalas can boast an excellent smelling ability that helps them to find the healthiest, most nutritious food sources.
\n\tThey aren\u2019t bears at all and are more closely related to other Australian marsupials.
\n\tTheir name translates to \u201cno drink\u201d in the Aboriginal language of Dharug. Koalas rarely drink water in the wild and get their nutrients from eating eucalyptus leaves
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