vil TH VLACOLEO 147 
been syndactylous, and the authors of the account! of these bones 
think that the fourth toe may have shared in this syndactyly. 
The metatarsal of the fifth digit is enormously expanded at its 
Dy Gy, 
yf Hts hy q 
[Pm Ge 
Fic. 73.—Diprotodon australis. (After Owen.) 
edge, and seems to have furnished a strong support to the 
creature; this is also seen in the metacarpal of the fore-limb. 
Probably, therefore, Diprotodon was quadrupedal in its mode of 
progression, with the em- 
phasis laid upon the 
little finger and the 
little toe instead of, as 
in ourselves, the first 
toe The hind-foot of 
the Diprotodon could 
not be more unlike that 
of a Kangaroo than it 
actually is. 
Another giant a go Fie. 74.—Thylacoleo carnifex. Side view of skull. 
otner gla t HOLINESS (After Flower.) 
these Marsupials was the 
genus Thylacoleo, whose name was given to it by Sir Richard 
Owen on the view that it was a Marsupial Tiger. Sir W. Flower 
has, however, controverted this opinion, and the genus is in fact, 
in spite of its large size, closely allied to the Phalangers and 
1 Stirling and Zietz, Mem. Roy. Soc. South Australia, i.; see also a notice in 
Nature, January 18, 1900. 
