GEOLOGY. 315 



ON THE EXTINCT MARSUPIAL ANIMALS OF AUSTRALIA. 



The following is an abstract of a lecture recently delivered by Professor 

 Owen, at the Government School of Mines, London, on the extinct quadru- 

 peds whose remains have been recently discovered in the caverns of Aus- 

 tralia, and in the auriferous and other tertiary deposits of that country. 



All the species which he had reconstructed from those fossils belonged to 

 the same low group of mammalia, with small brains, to which the living 

 marsupial quadrupeds belong. Not any marsupial species is indigenous to 

 the continents of Europe, Asia, or Africa. On the discovery of America, 

 some small quadrupeds of that continent became known to naturalists, as 

 being peculiar by possessing a pouch in which the young were protected and 

 carried for some time after birth, whence the name Marsupialia, signifying 

 " pouched beasts." The American species all belong to one genus, called 

 Didelphys, or opossum. They are small insectivorous quadrupeds, and most 

 of them dwell in trees. 



When Captain Cook and Sir Joseph Banks returned from the circumnavi- 

 gatory voyage in which Botany Bay was discovered, they brought informa- 

 tion of other marsupial animals which lived in Australia, and especially that 

 called the "kangaroo," so remarkable for the length and strength of the 

 hind legs and tail. The subsequent travellers and settlers in Australia soon 

 transmitted additional information, with specimens of the peculiar marsupial 

 quadrupeds of that continent, so that the Marsupialia are now known as an 

 extensive order, the species of which are restricted to America, Australia, 

 Tasmania, New Guinea, and a few islands extending thence towards Asia. 



The principal genera were then described, some being carnivorous, others 

 insectivorous, others frugivorous, or feeding on buds and leaves, others 

 herbivorous, others burrowing and living on roots. The opossums (Di- 

 delphys) are peculiar to America;^ none are found in Australasia. The 

 greatest number and diversity of marsupial quadrupeds exist in Australia 

 and Tasmania. 



Of the present known existing Marsupialia, the largest species are the 

 great kangaroo (Macropus major), familiar to most by living specimens in 

 menageries and zoological gardens, and the Thylacine, or hyena of the Tas- 

 manian colonist; the latter is carnivorous, and about the size of the shep- 

 herd's dog. Most of the Marsupialia are smaller than the common cat. 



Professor Owen then proceeded to give a history of the discovery of fossil 

 remains of animals in Australia. The first which he noticed was that made 

 by Major, afterwards Sir Thomas, Mitchell, the Surveyor General of Aus- 

 tralia in 1831. In his first exploring expedition, this traveller discovered 

 extensive caves in a limestone district of Wellington Valley, and in the 

 breccias of the caves he found many fossil bones and teeth, which were 

 submitted to Professor Owen's inspection, and described by him in the 

 appendix to the account of the expedition published by Sir T. Mitchell in 

 1838. Among these cave fossils Professor Owen had discovered remains of 

 the phalanger (Phalangista), the wombat (Phascolomys), the potoroo (Hyim- 

 prymnus], the kangaroo (Macropus), the Dasyurtis and Thylacinus, But, 

 although the fossils were referable to the foregoing existing genera, they 

 were all different from any species now known. Among the kangaroos 

 were two species which were much larger than the Macropus major: the 

 remains of the Dasynrus were larger than those of the D. ursinus, which is 

 now the largest living species, and is peculiar to Tasmania. The Thylacinus, 



