of science.

fora long

r furnished
expedition
light upon
le greatest
e informa-
thern land
ate) was a
d animals,
orous and
upialia are
lia is the
tent, from
s. Their
ries were
ized by a
Monkeys,

e Feline,

hhant, the
Lustralia ;
ipted for
hy there
es of the
i ti not,
subject,
iere ever
remains
keletons,
ist be of
als ; nor
we been

we their

ustralia,
ong her
explicit,
boas by

ntology,

ENG  OLDIUrCan sh @ Ni: xl

Professor Owen states—< Australia yields evidence of an analogous correspondence between its last extinct
and its present aboriginal mammalian fauna, which is the more interesting on account of the very peculiar
organization of most of the native quadrupeds of that division of the globe. That the AMarsupialia form one
great natural group is now generally admitted by zoologists ; the representatives in that group of many of
the orders of the more exclusive Placental subclass of the Mammalia of the larger continents have also been
recognized in the existing genera and species: the Dasyures, for example, play the parts of the Carnivora ;
the Bandicoots (Perameles), of the Insectivora; the Phalangers, of the Quadrumana; the Wombat, of the
Rodentia ; and the Kangaroos, in a remoter degree, of the Ruminantia. The first collection of mammalian
fossils from the ossiferous caves of Australia brought to light the former existence on that continent of
larger species of the same peculiar marsupial genera: some, as the Thylacine, and the Dasyurine subgenus
represented by the D. wrsinus, are now extinct on the Australian continent ; but one species of each still
exists on the adjacent island of Tasmania; the rest were extinct Wombats, Phalangers, Potoroos, and
Kangaroos—some of the latter (MWacropus Atlas, M. Titan) being of great stature. A single tooth, in the
same collection of fossils, gave the first indication of the former existence of a type of the Marsupial group,
which represented the Pachyderms of the larger continents, and which seems now to have disappeared
from the face of the Australian earth,—of the great quadruped, so indicated under the name of Diprotodon
in 1838 ; and successive subsequent acquisitions have established the true marsupial character and the near
affinities of the genus to the Kangaroo (Macropus), but with an osculant relationship with the herbivorous
Wombat. The entire skull of the Déprotodon, lately acquired by the British Museum, shows é situ the
tooth on which the genus was founded. This skull measures 3 feet in length, and exemplifies by its size
the huge dimensions of the primeval Kangaroo. Like the contemporary gigantic Sloth in South America,
the Diprotodon of Australia, while retaining the dental formula of its living homologue, shows great and
remarkable modifications of its limbs. The hind pair were much shortened and strengthened compared
with those of the Kangaroo ; the fore pair were lengthened, as well as strengthened. Yet, as in the case of
the Megatherium, the ulna and radius were maintained free, and so articulated as to give the fore paw the
rotatory actions. These, in Déprotodon, would be needed, as in the herbivorous Kangaroo, by the economy
of the marsupial pouch. The dental formula of Déiprotodon was the same as in Macropus major: the first of
the grinding series was soon shed, but the other four two-ridged teeth were longer retained; and the front
upper incisor was very large and scalpriform, as in the Wombat. The zygomatic arch sent down a process
for augmenting the origin of the masseter muscle, as in the Kangaroo. The foregoing skull, with parts of
the skeleton of the Déprotodon australis, were discovered in a lacustrine deposit, probably pleistocene,

intersected by creeks, in the plains of Darling Downs, Australia.

«The same formation has yielded evidence of a somewhat smaller extinct herbivorous genus (Vototherium),
combining, with essential affinities to Macropus, some of the characters of the Koala (Phascolarctos). The
writer has recently communicated descriptions and figures of the entire skull of the Mototherium Mitchell to
the Geological Society of London. The genus Phascolomys was at the same period represented by a Wombat
(P. gigas) of the magnitude of a Tapir. The pleistocene marsupial Carnivora presented the usual relations

of size and power to the Herbivora whose undue increase they had to check.”

In another work, Prof. Owen represents an almost entire skull, with part of the lower jaw, of an animal

( Thylacoleo) rivalling the Lion in size, the marsupial character of which is demonstrated by the position of