Anatomy and development of the koala, Phascolarctos cinereus: an evolutionary perspective on the superfamily Vombatoidea. Academic Article

abstract

• Fifteen koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus)--5 pouched young from 4 to 6.5 months and 10 adults from 5 to 16.5 years--were analyzed for functional parameters (body composition, limb segment and muscle mass, post-cranial skeletal characters) and developmental expressions (growth of body, brain, musculature). These data were compared with a convergent eutherian, the three-toed sloth, Bradypus infuscatus, and with the koala's distant (Macropodid; wallabies) and proximate (Vombatid; wombats) marsupial relatives. Musculoskeletal structures correlated with sitting and climbing; the growth of the young and the physiological demands of adulthood correlated with the low-quality diet of Eucalyptus foliage. The gestalt of the ancestral Vombatoids (pronograde quadrupeds, generalist browsers and social conservatives with low basal metabolism and attenuated development) provided the baseline essential for their locomotor and nutritional divergence into arboreal browsers, the koalas, and fossorial grazers, the wombats.

authors

• Barboza, Peregrine

published proceedings

• Anat Embryol (Berl)

altmetric score

• 8.04

author list (cited authors)

• Grand, T. I., & Barboza, P. S.

citation count

• 22

complete list of authors

• Grand, TI||Barboza, PS

publication date

• January 2001

publisher

• Springer Nature  Publisher

published in

• n0340-2061ISSN  Journal

keywords

• Animals
• Biological Evolution
• Body Composition
• Body Mass Index
• Bone And Bones
• Bone Development
• Female
• Male
• Marsupialia
• Muscle Development
• Muscle, Skeletal
• Reproduction
• Species Specificity

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1007/s004290000153

start page

• 211

end page

• 223

volume

• 203

issue

• 3