president's address. 863 



of the condyle of the lower jaw of the recently acquired speci- 

 men of the Thijlacoleo being on a level with the molar teeth ; the 

 absence of any peduncle or neck to the condyle, making it 

 perfectly sessile ; and the ascending ramus of the jaw, spring- 

 ing almost from the base of the condyle, are important facts in 

 determining the habits of this extinct mammal, the habits about 

 which so much dispute has arisen. These structural characters 

 so closely resemble those of the Thylacinm and Dasyurus, both 

 highly carnivorous animals of the present day, that we must 

 necessarily arrive at the conclusion that Professor Owen was 

 correct in originally determining from imperfect specimens, that 

 the Thjlacoleo was an animal of predatory and ferocious habits. 



J. have great pleasure in taking advantage of this opportunity 

 to add my tribute of respect to the veteran comparative anatomist, 

 who on so many occasions has deduced from a single fragment 

 of its structure, the entire animal ; and as instances I need only 

 mention out of the many, the Dinornis giganteus, the gigantic Moa 

 of New Zealand, determined from an old marrow bone, about six 

 inches thick, and having both extremities broken off ; the 

 Zeuglodon macrospondylus a huge oceanic mammal allied to the 

 whale, from a miroscopic examination of the teeth ; and the 

 Megalania prisca, the Australian gigantic land lizard, from three 

 imperfect vertebras. The first notice and description of the 

 remains of this gigantic land lizard were written by Professor 

 Owen, in June, 1858, from some fossil bones which were obtained 

 from the bed of a tributary of the Condamine River, in Queens- 

 land. These remains consisted only of three of the vertebras, as 

 before mentioned, a notice of which will be found in the 

 "Philosophical Transactions of the Eoyal Society of London," 

 Yol. 149, p. 43, 1858. 



On the 15th April, 1880, Professor Owen read before the same 

 society the results of study of such portions of the skeleton as 

 have come to hand during the last twenty years. These observa- 

 tions are embodied in parts II. and III., with descriptions and 



