BY R. BROOM. 6T 



position, for even in his very first paper he admits the possibility 

 of Thylacoleo being allied to the Phalangers, and when more 

 perfect specimens were discovered which proved it to be so, it in 

 no way altered his opinion that Thylacoleo was nevertheless a 

 carnivorous animal. 



Let us consider, however, whether there is really such a great 

 improbability, as Falconer and Flower seem to think, in a Dipro- 

 todont Marsupial becoming a carnivore, that Thylacoleo may with 

 such confidence be referred to the vegetable feeders. The question 

 divides itself into two — (1) whether the diprotodont dentition 

 can be modified to suit a carnivorous diet, and (2) whether in a 

 group of animals in a which a certain type of dentition is universal 

 and the habits apparently uniform, an aberrant form may be met 

 with which puts the same type of dentition to quite a different 

 use. 



Though Falconer and Flower ha^•e inclined to the view that a 

 carnivorous animal to be able satisfactorily to kill its prey requires 

 canines separated Ijy a row of incisors, the large series of forms- 

 given by Owen which are carnivorous and yet have the functions 

 of the canines entirely performed by large incisors sufiiciently 

 answers the first question. Flower, however, qualifies his state- 

 ment by defining a " true predaceous carnivorous animal " as 

 " one which kills and eats creatures at all comparable to itself in 

 bulk and capable of making any effectual resistance."* Were 

 this to be accepted as the definition of a carnivorous animal it 

 would rather complicate matters, for the fish-eating Seals would 

 have to be excluded, and so also would many of our most typical 

 carnivores which habitually feed on small forms. There is no 

 doubt that Owen is right in i-egarding the Hedgehog as more or 

 less a carnivorous form whose organisation is sufficiently adapted 

 to enable it to kill and eat young rabbits, and if we can thu& 

 have a diprotodont dentition which can be satisfactorily used in 

 the killing and eating of small animals all our knowledge of the 

 working of Nature would lead us to believe that she could in an 



* Lor. rif. p. 317. 



