president's address. 1237 



Tasmania, where the mean annual temperature is 7° below that of 

 the locality in which these remains are found. 



These facts favour the supposition that the climate of N. S. 

 Wales in the Pliocene period was warmer than at present and that 

 in Post-Pliocene times it became more humid and colder than now. 



Before considering the probable influence of these changes on the 

 fauna of N. S. Wales, it is necessary to refer briefly to the 

 principal types of animals inhabiting South-eastern Australia 

 during the Pleistocene Period, when they attained their greatest 

 development. 



Amongst the Diprotodonts one of the most remarkable forms 

 was the carnivorous Pouched Lion, Thylacoleo, considered however, 

 by Professor Flower to have been herbivorous. Thylacoleo was 

 furnished with carnassial teeth somewhat similar to those of the 

 Sabre-toothed Lion, whose remains are found in the cave deposits 

 of Europe. It was provided with " non-retractile, sub-compressed, 

 decurved, pointed claws, equalling or excelling those of the lion or 

 tiger in size ;" and from the size and form of its carnassial teeth, 

 Sir Richard Owen infers that it was one of the fellest and most 

 destructive of predatory beasts. 



Of the large herbivorous Diprotodonts the most conspicuous form 

 was Diprotodon, an animal taking the same place amongst Austra- 

 lian mammals that the Pachyderms do amongst the Fauna of other 

 Continents. Its great size may be inferred from the length 

 of its skull, which in one specimen measured three feet. 

 " This genus," says Sir Richard Owen, u has near affinities to 

 the Kangaroo with an osculant l'elationship to the Wombat." Its 

 hind pair of limbs were much shortened and strengthened (as 

 compared with those of the Kangaroo) while the fore pair were 

 lengthened as well as strengthened. This monster probably walked 

 like an elephant, and " brought down the tempting foliage by erosion 

 of the (tree) trunk, not by the strong haul of forcible grasp," (like 

 the Megatherium, the great extinct Sloth of South America). 

 Allied to Diprotodon was the Notothterium, another large 

 herbivorous mammal, somewhat resembling the South American 

 tapir. The Kangaroos, Wombats, and Echidnas of the Pleistocene 



