BY R. BROOM. 63 



Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1883, shows that he still 

 maintains his early opinion. And in more recent times Flower's 

 position has received the support of one of our most distinguished 

 palffiontologists, Mr. R. Lydekker.* 



Whatever difference of opinion may still exist as to the habits 

 of Tln/lacoleo from what is now known of its structure, its 

 affinities can be made out with tolei'able certainty. The structure 

 of the lower jaw and the dentition render it manifest that the 

 form is more nearly related to the Phalangers than to any other 

 living group, and there are none of the cranial characters but are 

 quite in harmony with this conclusion. In none of the living 

 Phalangers is there a similar enlargement of the posterior pre- 

 molar, but in the Macyopodidce which have manifestly been an 

 offshoot from the Phalangers, the enlarged premolar has been 

 retained in many of the forms — especially the smaller Rat- 

 kangaroos. About three years ago I discovered in a bone 

 breccia deposit near the Wombeyan Caves, N.S.W., the remains 

 of an interesting little Marsupial, which I described in a paper 

 communicated to this Society, f under the name of Bur rnmys parvus. 

 This little form, which is evidently the representative of a sub- 

 family of the Plialangeriche, and to which the name Burrninyin(e 

 may be given, in most of its characters agrees with the Phalangers, 

 but it possesses the greatly enlarged and grooved premolars of 

 the Rat-kangaroos; and it will be observed that not only does it 

 show the evidence of a group which fills the only remaining gap 

 between the Kangaroos and the Phalangers, but as a Phalanger 

 with the posterior premolars enormously enlarged it comes nearer 

 to Thylacoleo than does any extinct or living form hitherto dis- 

 covered. 



* Manual of Palteontology bj' Nicholson & Lydekker, Vol. ii, 1SS9. 

 Also Royal Natural History, Vol. iii. 1894, p. 264. 



t "On a small fossil (Diprotodont) Marsupial, with large grooved Pre- 

 molars." P.L.S.N.S.W. 1895, p. 563. Also " Report on a Bone Breccia 

 Deposit near the Wombeyan Caves, N.S.W.; with Descriptions of some 

 new fossil Marsupials." P.L.S.N.S.W. 1896, p. 48. 



