PRELIMINARY NOTES ON PHASCOLONUS GIGAS, 
Owen [PHASCOLOMYS (PHASCOLONUS) GIGAS, 
Owen], AND ITS IDENTITY WITH SCEPARNODON 
RAMSAYI, Owen. 
By E. C. Sriruine, M.D., F.R.S., C.M.Z.S., Director, 
and 
A. H. C. Zietz, F.L.S., C.M.Z.8., Assistant-Director, 
South Australian Museum. 
[Read July 4. 1899.] 
INTRODUCTION. 
In 4872 Sir Richard Owen described, under the designation of 
Phascolomys gigas,* certain fragments of mandibles of a large 
extinct wombat-like animal. At the same time he suggested for 
it the name Phascolonus if, thereafter, it should be found neces- 
sary to confer on it generic or subgeneric distinction. + 
In 1885 the same writer ascribed certain peculiar adze-like 
teeth to Scepyrnodon ramsayi,t the generic name having been 
suggested by Dr. Ramsay, then Curator of the Australian 
Museum, Sydney, who had transmitted casts of the teeth in 
question. 
In the following notes we desire to show 
(1) That the teeth, in question, ascribed to Sceparnodon 
ramsayi are the upper incisors of Phascolonus (Phascolomys) 
gigas; and 
(2) That Owen’s anticipation, that a more extended examina- 
tion of the remains of the animal to which his fossils belonged 
might prove to be generically distinct from Phascolomys, is 
fulfilled. 
We shall therefore adopt definitely the name Phascolonus 
which Owen’s prevision led him to suggest and which thus caused 
him to bracket it with that of Phascolomys in the index to his 
volumes on the Extinct Mammals of Australia. The probable 
correctness of this anticipation has already been to some extent 
recognised for, in the British Museum Catalogue of Fossil Mam- 
*Phil. Trans. R. Soc. of London, vol. CLXII. (1872), pp. 248—258. 
Extinct Mamm. of Australia, pp. 346—355. 
+ Vide footnote to above papers, pp. 251 and 348 respectively. 
t+ Phil. Trans., vol. CLXXV. (1884), pp. 245—248. 
