THE pre Holocene-Late Pleistocene record of
Phascolarctos in Australia is extremely meagre.
There are at least two, possibly three extinct species
of Phascolarctos in addition to the extant
Phascolarctos cinereus (Black 1999). P. yorkensis
(syn. Cundokoala yorkensis; Black and Archer 1997)
is known from the Early Pliocene Curramulka Local
Fauna, South Australia (SA), and the Late
Pleistocene Wellington Caves Local Fauna, New
South Wales (Archer et al. 1997; Pledge 1992). P.
stirtoni occurs in the Late Pleistocene Cement Mills
Local Fauna, Queensland, and is known only from a
partial maxilla containing P3-M2 (Bartholomai 1968,
1977). Phascolarctos material from the mid-
Pleistocene Victoria Fossil Cave and Spring Cave,
Naracoorte, SA, have also been referred to P. cf.
stirtoni but remain undescribed (Reed and Bourne
2000; Moriarty et al. 2000). P. maris is known from a
single lower molar from the Early Pliocene Sunlands
Local Fauna, SA (Pledge 1987). Black (1999) cast
doubt on its validity, suggesting its features may fall
within the intraspecific variation of P. stirtoni. If P.
maris is referable to P. stirtoni it is another South
Australian instance of this species, and extends its
range back to the Early Pliocene. The new
phascolarctid material documented here is from the
early Pleistocene Nelson Bay Local Fauna, Portland,
Victoria (141o 35? E; 38o 36? S). It is therefore an
important additional southern occurrence of a species
larger than the living P. cinereus, and is the only pre-
Late Pleistocene record of the Phascolarctidae in
Victoria.
Thorough assessment of DNA preservation from fossil bone and sediments excavated from a late Pleistocene–Holocene cave deposit on Kangaroo Island, South Australia
