ON A NEW QUEENSLAND LOCALITY FOR 



ZYGOMATUErS, Macleay. 



By ROBERT L. JACK, F.G.S. 



[Read before the lioijaJ Societij of Queemland, 2,2nd Sept., 1894.] 



There have recently been added to the Queensland Museum a 

 skull and other bones of an animal Avhich Mr. C. W. De Vis 

 recognises as belonging to the large marsupial for which Mr. W. 

 S. Macleay erected (a) the new genus Zy<jomaturus. The remains 

 in question were found by Mr. C. Woodland in the bank of the 

 Leichhardt Kiver, near Floraville Station. 



The matrix of the Floraville bones is a cemented gravel or 

 conglomerate in which the pebbles are such as might have been 

 derived from the Palaeozoic rocks of the neighbourhood. It 

 agrees in this respect with the matrix of some of the King's 

 Creek fossils which I have recently had an opportunity of see- 

 ing, and, as far as I can make out from Daintree's description {b), 

 with the matrix of the Maryvale fossils. 



The Hon. A. C. Gregory, speaking (c) of the Darling Downs 

 bone drifts, points out, what is undoubtedly the fact about most 

 of the Darling Downs localities, that " one remarkable feature 

 of the older alluvium is that the fossil bones are only found in 

 the detritus of the basaltic rocks," and observes that " this may 

 have resulted from the superior fertility of the basaltic lands, 

 which would be capable of producing abundance of food, while 

 the comparatively sterile soil derived from the older formations 

 would not furnish suitable vegetation for the maintenance of 

 the massive quadrupeds of that era." I quote this for the 

 purpose of pointing the contrast between the Darling Downs 



(a) Description in a Sydney newspaper, probably in September, 1857, 

 quoted in Q. J. Geol. Soc, XV (1858), p. 168. 



(&) Q. J. Geol. Soc, 1872, XXVIII, p. 274. 



(c) Geological Features of the South-eastern District of Queensland, 

 Brisbane : By authority : 1879. 



