Phascolarctos stirtoni Bartholomai, 1968
Giant koala, Stirton's koala
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
The taxon is eponymous, having been named in honour of American palaeontologist Ruben Arther "R. A." Stirton, who came to Australia under the auspices of a Fullbright scholarship in 1953 for 9 months.
Conservation Status
Extinct
Last record: Late Pleistocene
Distribution
Queensland, South Australia & Victoria, Australia
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Holotype: QMF5707
Other material:
MVP215957 (Price, 2008:2518)
QMF52290 (Price, 2008:2518)
QM F52289 (Price, 2008:2518; Price et al. 2009a)
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Bartholomai, Alan. (1968). A new fossil koala from Queensland and a reassessment of the taxonomic position of the problematical species Koalemus ingens De Vis. Mem. Qld. Mus. 15(2): 65-72.
Other references:
Archer, Michael. (1984). On the importance of being a koala, pp. 809-815. In: Archer, M. and Clayton, G. (eds.). Vertebrate Zoogeography and Evolution in Australia. Carlisle, Western Australia: Hesperian Press.
Archer, Michael and Hand, Suzanne J. (1987). Evolutionary considerations, pp. 79-106. In: Cronin, L. (ed.). Koala: Australia’s Endearing Marsupial. Sydney: Reed Books.
Bartholomai, Alan. (1977). The fossil vertebrate fauna from Pleistocene deposits at Cement Mills, Gore, Southeastern Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 18(1): 41-51.
Black, K.H., Gilbert J. Price, Archer, M., Hand, S.J. (2014). Bearing up well? Understanding the past, present and future of Australia’s koalas. Gondwana Research 25: 1186-1201.
Mahoney, J. A. and Ride, W. D. L. (1975). Index to the genera and species of fossil Mammalia described from Australia and New Guinea between 1838 and 1968. Western Australian Museum Special Publication 6: 1-250.
Marshall, Larry G. (1973). The Lake Victoria local fauna, a late Pleistocene – Holocene fauna from Lake Victoria, NSW, Australia. Unpublished MSc thesis, Zoology Department, Monash University, Melbourne. 2 vols.
Moriarty, K.C., McCulloch, M.T., Wells, R.T., McDowell, M.C., 2000. Mid-Pleistocene cave fills, megafaunal remains and climate change at Naracoorte, South Australia: towards a predictive model using U–Th dating of speleothems. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 159: 113-143.
Murray, P. F. (1984). Extinctions downunder: A bestiary of extinct Australian monotremes and marsupials, pp. 600-628. In: Martin, P. S. and Klein, R. G. (eds.). Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution. Tuscon, Arizona: The University of Arizona Press.
Murray, P. F. (1991). The Pleistocene megafauna of Australia, pp. 1071-1164. In: Vickers-Rich, P., Monaghan, J. M., Baird, R. F., and Rich, T. H. Vertebrate Palaeontology of Australiasia. Pioneer Design Studio. [P. cinereus or P. stirtoni, material lacks diagnostic features]
Piper, Katarzyna J. (2005). An early Pleistocene record of a giant koala (Phascolarctidae: Marsupialia) from western Victoria. Australian Mammalogy 27: 221-223.
Price, Gilbert J. (2008). Is the modern koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) a derived dwarf of a Pleistocene giant? Implications for testing megafauna extinction hypotheses. Quaternary Science Reviews 27(27-28): 2516-2521. [oldest known record, c. 500ka]
Price, Gilbert J., Louys, Julien, Smith Garry K. and Cramb Jonathan. (2019). Shifting faunal baselines through the Quaternary revealed by cave fossils of eastern Australia. PeerJ 6: e6099.
Price, Gilbert J., Zhao, Jian-Xin, Feng, Yue-Xing and Hocknull, Scott A. (2009a). New records of Plio-Pleistocene koalas from Australia: palaeoecological and taxonomic implications. Records of the Australian Museum 61(1): 39-48.
Price, Gilbert J., Zhao, Jian-Xin, Feng, Yue-Xing and Hocknull, Scott A. (2009b). New U/Th ages for Pleistocene megafauna deposits of southeastern Queensland, Australia. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 34(2): 190-197. [youngest record, c.50ka]
Prideaux, G. J., R. G. Roberts, D. Megirian, K. E. Westaway, J. C. Hellstrom, and J. M. Olley. (2007). Mammalian responses to Pleistocene climate change in southeastern Australia. Geology 35: 33-36.
Reed, Elizabeth H. and Bourne, Steven J. (2000). Pleistocene fossil vertebrate sites of the south east region of South Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 124(2): 61-90.
Reed, Elizabeth H. and Bourne, Steven J. (2009). Pleistocene Fossil Vertebrate Sites of the South East Region of South Australia II. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 133(1): 30-40.
Travouillon, Kenny J., Jackson, Stephen, Beck, Robin M. D., Louys, Julien, Cramb, Jonathan, Gillespie, Anna, Black, Karen, Hand, Suzanne, Archer, Michael, Kear, Benjamin, Hocknull, Scott, Phillips, Matthew, McDowell, Matthew, Fitzgerald, Erich M. G., Brewer, Phillipa and Price, Gilbert J. (2024). Checklist of the Fossil Mammal Species of Australia and New Guinea. Available from: https://www.australasianpalaeontologists.com/national-fossil-species-lists [Accessed 24 November 2024]
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