236 REPORT— 1844. 



coupling this with the ball and socket joint between the scaphoid and astra- 

 galus, we may conclude that the foot of the great extinct Marsupial possessed 

 that degree of rotatory movement, which, as enjoyed by the Wombat, is so 

 closely analogous to the pronation and supination of the hand. We finally 

 derive from the well-marked marsupial modifications of the present fossil 

 astragalus a corroboration of the inferences, as to the former existence in 

 Australia of a marsupial vegetable feeder as large as the Rhinoceros, which 

 have been deduced from the inflected angle and other characters of the jaw of 

 the Diprotodon and the Nofotherium, and from the fossil calcaneum which 

 has been referred to the Diprotodon. The present bone closely agrees in all 

 its marsupial modifications M'ith that calcaneum, but the single flat surface 

 which articulated with the calcaneum is longer in proportion to its breadth. 

 From this circumstance, and the close agreement in colour and general con- 

 dition which the present astragalus has with the jaw of the NototJiermm, as 

 well as its somewhat smaller size in proportion to the calcaneum, I have 

 referred it provisionally, as before observed, to the Nototherium ; but, for 

 demonstration, further discoveries will be required of parts of the skeleton so 

 associated as to justify the inference that they had belonged to one indi- 

 vidual. 



Sir Thomas Mitchell has transmitted, from the pliocene or post-pliocene 

 deposits near Moreton Bay, in addition to the remains of the large and \ery 

 remarkable quadrupeds above-described, several fossils referable to the large 

 extinct Kangaroos called Macropits Atlas a.nd Macroptis Titan, which species 

 were originally recognised by the fossils from the ossiferous caves of Wel- 

 lington Valley. The posterior molars in the upper jaw-bone of the Macropjis 

 Titan show the more distinct and stronger posterior basal ridge and the more 

 complex form of the median longitudinal buttress connecting the two chief 

 transverse eminences, which in like manner distinguished the cave fossils of 

 the same extinct species from the Macropus major and Macroptis laniger, the 

 largest existing species of Kangaroo. 



The posterior molar teeth in a fossil lower jaw of the Macropus Titan, 

 from the same deposits near Moi'eton Bay, manifest, with the cave specimens, 

 the same difference from both the Mao-opus Atlas and the largest existing 

 species of Kangaroo, in the greater antero-posterior extent of the anterior 

 basal ridge, and from the Macropus Atlas also, in the greater antero-posterior 

 extent of the base of the two principal transverse eminences of the crown, 

 and in the absence in these molar teeth of the posterior talon. The maxillary 

 fossils of the Macropus Atlas, from the same pliocene or post-pliocene deposit 

 near Moreton Bay, in like manner agreed in size and distinctive characters 

 with the spelaean fossils. Remains of tiie same extinct species of gigantic 

 Kangaroos were also associated with the Diprotodon in the deposits of the 

 district of Melbourne. 



Since therefore the Mammalian fossils of the pliocene, post-pliocene, or 

 diluvial period ai'e already shown to be Vv'idely distributed over Australia, and 

 appear, from the numerous specimens obtained by three or four collectors 

 within a few years, to be as abundant in the superficial deposits and caves 

 of Australia as are the analogous fossil remains in the corresponding forma- 

 tions and caves of Eurojie, Asia and both Americas, we may hope soon to be 

 in possession of a body of evidence which will establish the law of geographi- 

 cal distribution of extinct Mammalia, as satisfactorily in regard to Australasia 

 as it seems now capable of being determined in I'egard to the larger continents 

 of the globe. 



When the comparison of the extinct Mammalia of the pliocene and post- 

 pliocene epochs with the existing species in the same locality is restricted to 



