162 



HIGH SCHOOL ZOOLOGY. 



A great Vcariety of forms occurs among the Australian Marsupials, There 

 are some like the Tasmanian devil (DasjarHs), or like the native clog, 

 (Thi/lachius) which are distinctly carnivorous in their habits; other 

 fruit-eating forms which are arboreal, and are adapted for their mode 

 of life by the possession of a long prehensile tail, or even, as in the case 

 of the Hying phalangers (PlialaiKjista), of a patagium like our flying 

 squirrels ; again, there are herbivorous forms like the kangaroos (Fig. 

 108), in which-the fore legs are extremely short, the hind limbs chiefly 

 used in locomotion and the toes reducecl in number, and, Anally, there are 

 forms (Phascolomys) with gnawing teeth like the beaver's, which are 

 associated with similar methods of securing food. Such features as the 

 above are evidently adapted to the habits of the creatures, but there are 



Fig. 108. Giant Kansraroo. 



(Halmaturus giyanteus). -^ 



certain underlying stractural peculiarities common to the whole group 

 apart from those refered to in § 2. The dentition e. g., is not refer- 

 able to the same type as that of the higher Mammalia, the teeth being 

 much more numerous ; the tendency to union of different tracts of skull- 

 bones (§ 6), is not so well-marked, and the angle of the lower jaw bone 

 is turned in, in a characteristic way, which has assisted in the identi- 

 fication of the fossil remains of this nature. 



