Phascolarctos is a genus of marsupials with one extant species, the koala Phascolarctos cinereus, an iconic animal of Australia. Several extinct species of the genus are known from fossil material; these were also large tree dwellers that browsed on Eucalyptus leaves.
Taxonomy
The genus was named by French zoologist Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville in 1816.
The type species, the modern koala, was named as Lipurus cinereus by G. A. Goldfuss in 1817, later combined as Phascolarctos cinereus. Goldfuss published this name with a reproduction of John Lewin's 1803 illustration of the species in New South Wales.
An accepted synonymy of other generic names referring to Phascolarctos was published in 1988. The koala is listed in national conservation legislation as "Phascolarctos cinereus (combined populations of Qld, NSW and the ACT)", previously determined in 2012 to be "a species for the purposes of the EPBC act 1999" (EPBC). The koala was classified as Least Concern on the Red List, and reassessed as Vulnerable in 2014.
The name is derived from Ancient Greek () 'pouch' and () 'bear'.
Description
Phascolarctos is a genus of large arboreal marsupials that has specialised in leaves of Eucalyptus, a poor quality and potentially toxic food source that is unavailable to most other native mammals.
Classification
Phascolarctos gives its name to the Phascolarctidae family, which allies a number of other genera that are now extinct. Anatomical similarities suggest the probably share a common ancestor of Vombatidae, represented by the living species of Vombatus and Lasiorhinus; the wombats are their closest extant relations among the Diprotodontia order of marsupials.
Family Phascolarctidae
- Genus Nimiokoala
- Genus Invictokoala
- Genus Madakoala
- Genus Litokoala
- Genus Koobor
- Genus Perikoala
- Genus Phascolarctos
- Koala - Phascolarctos cinereus
- Phascolarctos maris N. S. Pledge, 1987
- Genus Priscakoala
A previously recognised arrangement of infraspecific taxa may be summarised as
- Phascolarctos cinereus Koala Mundubbera, QLD
- Phascolarctos cinereus cinereus, (Goldfuss 1817) NSW
- Phascolarctos cinereus victor, Troughton 1935. 'Booral', Victoria
Three subspecies have been recognised within the existing species, based on specimens collected in Queensland, New South Wales and a "southern race" in Victoria. These may only represent clinal variation within the species at different latitudes, a conclusion reached by a genomic comparison in 2019 that found no support for a classification as three subspecies; the study instead supports a proposal for the population be recognised as a single evolutionary significant unit for conservation purposes.