﻿186 ALLEN'S naturalist's LIBRARY. 



i 



which are of minute size, gave rise to a bitter conflict analo- , 

 gous to the one which, as we have seen, occurred at a later f 

 date in the case of the Marsupial Thylacoleo ; one party main- 

 taining that these Uttle creatures were carnivorous, while the A 

 other as persistently asserted their herbivorous nature. The 

 evidence in favour of the latter view was mainly furnished from 

 the similarity of the teeth of these extinct Mammals to those 

 of the Rat-Kangaroos, and although this similarity is now 

 regarded merely as an instance of parallel development, and 

 not as indicative of genetic affinity, it is probable that the 

 deductions drawn therefrom are true, and that these early 

 British Mammals were as herbivorous as the antipodean group 

 they so curiously simulate in the structure of their teeth. 



\ 



