Tooth-marks of Thylacoleo. 109 



fractured longitudinally have undoubtedly been broken by the 

 insertion of a pointed and not a shearing tooth, for the markfj 

 of a tooth of this character are plainly visible, which would 

 mean, if ThylarnJeo is the responsible agent, that his incisors 

 were brought into play ; otherwise we can only assume that 

 some other of the contemporary carnivorous animals had also 

 taken part in breaking and marking the bones. There is, how- 

 ever, as we have already stated, nothing in any of the features 

 noted which cannot be satisfactorily explained by attributing 

 them to some bone-eating beast or beasts such as we know 

 existed along with the animals whose remains we have been 

 discussing. These bones therefore do not call for further at- 

 tention. 



Some of the New South Wales specimens, which were found 

 in a pleistocene deposit at Myall Creek, near Bingera, possess 

 some points of interest. Their ocicurrence was described in 

 detail by Mr. W. Anderson (1), and we quote the following 

 from his report : — 



'■ Occurring in the ossiferous portions of the clays were 

 mimerous small fragments of bones, generally a few inches in 

 length, and chiefly pieces of the longer limb bones, which had 

 been broken into fragments prior to their deposition in the 

 clays. In almost every case the sharp fractured edges and 

 angles of these fragments had been slightly rounded by attri- 

 tion, but they were by no means so well water-worn as the 

 pebbles which occurred along with them. The fragments of 

 the thicker bones rarely showed an entire transverse section of 

 the bone which had not only been fractured transversely, but 

 also longitudinally. In the case of fragments of the thinner 

 bones, the transverse section is generally complete, the bone 

 not having been fractured longitudinally. The large majority 

 of the broken fragments show unmistakably the teeth-marks 

 of some carnivorous animal or animals. Most of these marks 

 are, however, too fine to have been produced by the carnassial 

 teeth of Thylacoleo, although there are some of them which 

 seem large enough and coarse enough to have been so pro- 

 duced. The fragments of bones which show evidences of having 

 been gnawed are chiefly pieces of the shafts of the longer limb- 

 bones and ribs. The teeth-marks occur sinalv alone the surface 



