76 



STUDIES IN TASMANIAN MAMMALS, 

 LIVING AND EXTINCT. 



Number III. 

 Nototherium mitchelli. * 



Its evolutionary trend — the skull, and such structures as 

 related to the nasal horn. 



By 



H. TI. Scott (Curator of Launceston Museum) 



and 



Clive E. Lord (Curator of Tasmanian Museum, Hobart). 



Plates XIII. - XXI. 



(Read 9th August, 1920.) 



INTRODUCTION. 



In a previous contribution we have traced the history 

 of the Genus Nototherium, and have also described the 

 osteology of the cervical vertebrae. As -a natural sequence 

 we now desire to place on record certain data ( gathered 

 from a detailed examination of the skull itself. Before 

 proceeding further, however, it might be as well if we 

 explained our aims as regards the work generally. 



A wonderful and most interesting group of marsupial 

 animals has died out in our immediate zoological province, 

 and as the remains available to us are superior in point of 

 preservation to anything obtained in other parts of Aus- 

 tralia, we are tempted to pay more attention to phyletic 

 than taxonomic data. If all the Nototherian remains in 

 the world were collected to a single centre, many, if not 

 most, of the accepted genera and species would be found 

 unnecessary for their adequate display as a single scien- 

 tific collection. Accordingly, we are less interested in the 

 ultimate fate of any species than we are in the elucidation 

 of such facts as relate the racial history, development, and 

 extinction of the Nototherian stirp. The phyletic trend 

 of the stirp we are investigating was apparently towards 

 the production of an aggressive race, and even a super- 



* The specimen described was found in the Mowbray' Swamp, near Smithton, 

 N.W. Tasmania, in 1920, by Mr. E. C. Lovell. Mr. K. M. Harrisson made an 

 arrangement with Mr. Lovell whereby the specimen was presented to the Tas- 

 manian Museum. Tasmanian scientific institutions have benefited considerably 



owing to Mr. Harrisson's interest in their welfare. 



