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Phascolarctidae

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Phascolarctidae is a family of marsupials in the order Diprotodontia, in the suborder Vombatiformes alongside the wombats, its closest living relatives. Only one species survives today, the koala, Phascolarctos cinereus, though the family also includes nine identified extinct genera known from fossils dating back to the Late Oligocene or Middle Miocene. The family scientific name comes from Greek words for pouch and bear, reflecting the koala status as a pouched marsupial rather than a true bear.

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