New fossil koala (Marsupialia: Phascolarctidae) from the Pleistocene of Western Australia

Fossils of koalas have been known from Western Australia since 1910, but are today regionally extinct. Jaws and bones were previously reported from several cave deposits in the south-west of WA, Koala Cave in Yanchep, and from Madura Cave on the Roe Plain. Due to the similarity of the dentition with the east coast koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus), they were traditionally assumed to be the same species. Two complete additional adult skulls were collected in the past 25 years. These skulls are interpreted to belong to a male and female koala, are similar in body size to koalas from Victoria, but the shape of the skulls differ significantly, in being relatively much shorter in length, and having obvious deep concavities on the maxilla, below the zygomatic arch. Differences from the eastern species are also apparent in the postcranial skeleton. Analysis of measurements on the skulls and teeth show that the Western Australian koala is morphologically distinct from its east coast relative and ..., , # Data from: New fossil koala (Marsupialia: Phascolarctidae) from the Pleistocene of Western Australia

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.9zw3r22vg](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.9zw3r22vg)

## Description of the data and file structure

Data has been collected and collated for the description of the anatomy of the new fossil taxon *Phascolarctos sulcomaxilliaris*, alongside efforts to date the age of the fossils, and place the new taxon into a phylogeny.

### Files and variables

### File: MrBayes_Phylogenetics_files.zip

**Description:** The MrBayes Phylogenetics .zip file contains:

* The annotated executable run file (.nex), partitions (.part), and resulting log (.log).

The .nex file contains the morphological character matrix used in the analyses, as well as the chosen models and variables detailed in the methods. The .log file lists all steps in the analysis process and where the results have been output to (as per files also listed below).

- The chain results per every 1000 generat..., ,