304 PALEONTOLOGY 



Genus Phascolotheru'm.— Although the evidence of the 

 very slight degree, of inflection of the angular process of the 

 lower jaw of Amphith&riwn, may favour its affinity to the placen- 

 tal Insectivores, yet the range of variety to which that mandi- 

 bular character is subject in the different genera of existing 

 Marsupialia warns us against laying undue stress upon its 

 feeble development in the extinct genus of the oolitic epoch, 

 and incites us to look with redoubled interest at whatever 

 other indications of a marsupial character may be present in 

 the fossil remains of other genera and species of Mammalia 

 that have been detected in the Stonesfield slate. 



In the specimen of Phascolotkcrnim (fig. 86) presented to 

 the British Museum by William J. Broderip, Esq., F.B.S., its 



Fig 86. 



Lower jaw and teeth of the Phascolotherium (nat. size in outline), 



Lower Oolite. 



original describer* which is as perfect in regard to the dentition 

 as the jaw of the A mphithervum above described, the marsupial 

 characters are more strongly manifested in the general form of 

 the jaw, and in the extent and position of the inflected angle, 

 while the agreement with the genus Didelphys in the number 

 of the premolar and molar teeth is complete. The forms of 

 the crowns of those teeth differ from those in Didelphys, and 

 correspond so closely with those in the A mphilestes BrodeHpii, 

 * Zoological Journal, vol. iii„ p, 408, pi. xl„ 1828. 



