Phascolarctos

The koala was given its generic name Phascolarctos in 1816 by French zoologist Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville,[10] who would not give it a specific

name until further review. In 1819, German zoologist Georg August Goldfuss gave it the binomial Lipurus cinereus. Because Phascolarctos was pub

lished first, according to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, it has priority as the official name of the genus.[11] French naturalist Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest proposed the name Phascolarctos fuscus in 1820, suggesting that the brown-coloured

versions were a different species than the grey ones. Other names suggested by European authors included Marodactylus cinereus by Goldfuss in 1820,

P. flindersii by René Primevère Lesson in 1827, and P. koala by John Edward Gray in 1827.[2]