The evolution of koalas revealed
Continuing on with the “fossil skull revealing new insights into X’s evolution” line of news stories, skulls of two koala ancestors, Litokoala and Nimiokoala, have been analysed by Dr. Julien Louys from the University of New South Wales.
The analysis revealed that the mastication (chewing) apparatus of modern koalas, who subsist on a diet solely comprised of eucalyptus leaves, is much more specialised than the same apparatus in the ancestral species when compared with the distinction between the middle ears of both modern and ancestral koalas – in other words, there was more difference between the chewing mechanisms than the middle ears, suggesting that they evolved separately at different times.
You gotta love those Australian animals.
