MARSUPIALS. 373 



CHAPTER V. 



TEETH OF MARSUPIALIA. 



150. Sarcophaga{\) . — There is no toothless genus in the present 

 Order, unless the Monotremes or implacental Edentata be regarded as 

 modified Marsupials. Molar and incisor teeth are present in both jaws 

 in every true Marsupial species, but are relatively smaller in Tarsipes 

 and Myrmecobius, than, perhaps, in any other mammiterous quadruped ; 

 the canines are but feebly represented in many, as the Phalangers 

 and Petaurists, are wanting in the lower jaw in the Potoroos and 

 Koala, and in both jaws of the Kangaroos and Wombat. The 

 grinders, on the other hand, present their most complicated structure 

 in these last cited herbivorous genera. 



The Dasyures and Thylacine offer the carnivorous type of the 

 dental system, but differ from the corresponding group of the 

 Placental Mammalia in having the molars of a more uniform and 

 simple structure, and the incisors in greater number ; which number, 

 however, is different in the different predaceous genera, as is ex- 

 pressed in the dental formulee. 



That of the Thylacinus, or Dogheaded Opossum (PL 98, fig. 1), 

 is as follows : 



Incisors — : canines — : premolars — : molars — : = 46. 



3—3 ' 1— 1 ' i 3—3 ' 4—4 



The incisors are of equal length and regularly arranged in the 

 segment of a circle with an interspace in the middle of the series 

 of both jaws. The external incisor on each side is the strongest. 

 The laniary or canine teeth are long, strong, curved, and pointed, 

 like those of the dog tribe ; the points of the lower canines are 

 received in hollows of the intermaxillary palatal plate when the 

 mouth is closed, and do not project, as in the carnivorous Placentals, 

 beyond the margins of the maxillary bones. The spurious molars (p) 



(1) By this name I first defined the present Tribe of Marsupial Animals in order to avoid 

 the confusion that might have arisen from the use of the word ' Carnivora' usually applied to the 

 corresponding group in the Placental series of Mammalia. — Zoological Transactions, vol. ii, p. 315. 



