14 STUDIES IN TASMANIAN MAMMALS, LIVING AND EXTINCT, 



to-day. In view of the fact that isolation from mainland 

 climatic conditions almost certainly enabled the Pleistocene 

 animals to survive, and vary, upon King Island and Tas- 

 mania, after their extinction elsewhere, we feel justified in 

 segregating this animal to specific distinction, and have 

 much pleasure in naming it after Mr. K. M. Harrisson, of 

 Smithton, who has manifested such a keen interest in the 

 extinct animals of Tasmania, and generously presented his 

 specimens to our Museums. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE FEMUR. 



The shaft of the femur is nearly flat, as obtains in the 

 Monotremata generally, and the head is devoid of an articu- 

 lar attachment for a ligamentum teres, thereby agreeing 

 with mammals as high in the scale as the Nototheria from 

 the same locality. The trochanter major is missing, but it 

 evidently did little more than bound the epitrochanterian 

 surface, since its muscular attachment functions are largely 

 carried out by the extensive ridge extending for 35 mm. 

 down the shaft. Both sides of the shaft indicate great 

 muscular conditions, the popliteal fossa is enormous, its 

 crescent shaped area taking the full mass of a large human 

 thumb to fill it, when the latter is strongly pressed to the 

 diaphysis. The rotular trochlea is 25 mm. wide, well 

 marked, and curved only in the vertical direction. The 

 intercondylar fossa is 10 mm. wide, and 9 mm. The Una 

 aspera is similar to that of the modern animal, as also are 

 the proportions existing between the internal and the ex- 

 ternal condyles. 



A complete skeleton of one of these animals, obtained 

 from a swamp that has undergone fewer mutations than 

 the King Island lagoons appear to have suffered, would be 

 a welcome addition to our knowledge, and for this desider- 

 atum we may yet turn to the Mowbray Swamp at Smithton, 

 and meet with success. 



The portion of the humerus is too fragmentary for 

 detailed description or even photographic reproduction. The 

 evidence relating to gigantic Monotremes is largely contained 

 in the following archives:^ — : 



CLASSIFICATION AND NOMENCLATURE. 

 Ann. Record Science and Industry, 1876, Page clxxi., in 

 which Gills' use of the name Zaglossus predates 

 Gervais' term Proechidna. 



