Natures wonders: koalas move like apes (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, December 17, 2019, 23:27 (1801 days ago) @ David Turell

Not surprising. They are somewhat closely related primates:

https://cosmosmagazine.com/biology/moves-like-a-marsupial-climbs-like-a-primate?utm_sou...

"Australia’s cuddly koala seems to have evolved tree clambering abilities that rival those of the apes and monkeys that never made it to the continent.

"Technically a marsupial – bearing its young in a pouch like kangaroos and wombats – the koala (Phascolarctos cinerus) has relatively long limbs with two thumb-like digits on powerful grasping hands and feet, and is more comfortable in the trees than on the ground.

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"They found that, unlike other mammals such as cats and dogs that use two legs from the same side to support each other, koalas use a gait that allows greater stability from diagonally opposite leg pairs when climbing.

“'As far as we can tell, they are the closest thing we have to primates in Australia,” says Clemente, “likely because of the similar gripping structures on the hand. They do this more so than other tree species like possums, from which they share a common ancestor.”

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"Unlike primates, though, their speed was more consistent with their sleepy demeanour, only reaching 2.5 kilometres per hour – although they were surprisingly agile.

“We occasionally saw leaps of over one metre from branch to branch, or a koala moving along a branch while hanging underneath just using their forelimbs,” says Clemente.

"On the ground their movements were more like marsupials, walking then bounding like rabbits with their hind feet synchronised to meet the ground at the same time. This is unlike the gallop used by many primates when moving quickly.

"Here, they achieved speeds of up to 10 kilometres per hour – relatively slow for their body mass, but possibly slower than speeds they are capable of, the authors suggest."

Comment: Interesting. Same habitat and similar genetics.