MARSUPIALS. 2S9 



interior of Australia.* At first they were supposed to have been extinct pachyderms ; but subse- 

 quent acquisitions established their true marsupial character, and their near affinity to the Kangaroo, 

 but with an osculant relationship with the herbivorous Wombat. They were of gigantic size ; the 

 head alone being larger than the whole body of the Wombat, and exceeding in dimensions that 

 of the largest Rhinoceros. Professor Owen saj-s, " Like the contemporary gigantic sloth in South 

 America, the Diprotodon of Australia, while retaining the dental formula of its lixing homologue, 

 shows great and remarkable modifications of its limbs. The hind j)air were much shortened and 

 strengthened, compared with those of the Kangaroo. The fore pair were lengthened as well as 

 strengthened. Yet in the case of the Megatherium the ulna and radius were maintained free ; and 

 so articulated, as to give the fore-paw the rotatory actions. These in Diprotodon would be needed, 

 as in the herbivorous Kangaroo, by the economy of the marsupial pouch." f Almost the entire 

 skeleton is known from nmnerous remains which have been found in a lacustrine deposit, intersected 

 by creeks in the plains of Darling Downs. Other specimens have been obtained from the alluvial 

 deposits in the beds of the Condamine River, westward of Moreton Bay, and from the Melbourne 

 district of Port Phillip. 



The genus, Nototherium, also found in the same formation, combined the characters of the 

 Kangaroo and of the Kaola. It, too, was a herbivorous animal, of large size, although somewhat 

 inferior to that of the Diprotodon. It is supposed to have been of the size of a Rhinoceros. There was 

 also a Wombat as large as a Tapir belonging to the same period, and found in the same deposits. 



KA^'GAR00s AND Kangaeoo Rats i-^Macropus, and IIypsiprymnus, &c. (Map 9G.) The Kan- 

 garoo, as it is the first discovered and best known of Avistralian mammals, is also the most numerous 

 in species and the most widely distributed. It is found in every part of the continent which has been 

 yet explored. Some are pecidiar to the east, some to the south, some to the west, and some to 

 the north ; some are adapted for living in the scrubs, others for the deserts, others again for rocky 

 precipices and steep mountains, and others for living in trees, viz., the species peculiar to the tangled 

 forest belts surrounding New Guinea, which, if thej' could not lead an arboreal Kfe, could not live in 

 the parts in which they are found at all. Their fore-legs are almost as long as the hind, and are fitted 

 with long curved claws, suitable to the animal's mode of life. Mr. Gould J has divided the Kangaroos 

 into ten sections, an amount of subdivision which seems more than is needed, and which at any rate is 

 more than I have been able to jsrofit bj'. Ilis first section, Macropis proi)er, is not found in the north ; 

 but that district possesses more than an equal proportion of his second section, Osphranter. IIai,ma- 

 TURUS is foimd all round the coasts as well as in the interior ; so is Petrogale. Two species of the 

 Tree Kangaroo, Dendrolagus (uRsiNrs and ixrsxus) are found in the mangrove shore-belts of New 

 Guinea, and one on the north coast of Australia. § These are remarkable adaptations of a type 

 fitted for one condition of life, to another when compelled by circumstances to adojit it. The 

 Macropus, which may be taken as the type, is fitted for plains ; the Petrogale for precipitous 



* Mitchell, Sir Thomas, "Three Expeditions iuto or a new Dendrolagcs. I have, however, every confi- 



Australia," vol. ii. p. 339. 1838. dence that the statement is correct. I noted it at the 



t Owen, R. "Paleontology," pp. 394, 395. time I met with it, which I should not have done without 



X Gould, John, " Mammals of Australia." comment, had I entertained any doubt of its authenticity. 



§ I have unfortunately mislaid the reference to my The occurrence on the north coast of Australia of a Cuscns 



authority for saying that a species of Dendrolagus occui-s (a New Guinea form of Phalanger inhabiting the s^amc dis- 



on the northern Australian Coast, and I cannot recall to trict ami existing under the same condition as the Dendro- 



raind whether it was one of the known New Guinea species lagus) supplies a wcll-autbcnticated parallel instance. 



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