ROOM IV. FOSSIL MARSUPIAL OF STONESFIELD. 403 



connected with this subject, we proceed to the examination 

 of the specimen before us. 



FOSSIL MARSUPIAL ANIMAL OF STONESFIELD. (Phascolo- 

 therium. 1 ) Wall-case G. The following is Mr. Broderip's 

 account of the discovery of this fossil : " Some years have 

 elapsed since an ancient stone-mason, living at Heddington, 

 who used to collect for me, made his appearance at my rooms 

 at Oxford, with two specimens of the lower jaws of mam- 

 miferous animals, imbedded in Stonesfield slate, fresh from 

 the quarry. One of the jaws was purchased by my friend 

 Professor Buckland, who exclaimed against my retaining 

 both, and the other I lent him some time ago." 2 It is now 

 in the British Museum. 



The discovery of the remains of undoubted mammalia in 

 the lower oolite of Stonesfield, was first made known by Dr. 

 Buckland in his Memoir on the Megalosaurus, in 1823, in 

 the following words : " The other animals that are found at 

 Stonesfield are not less extraordinary. Among the most 

 remarkable are two portions of the jaw of the Didelphys, or 

 Opossum, being of the size of a small Kangaroo Eat, and be- 

 longing to a family which now chiefly exists in America, 

 South Asia, and New Holland. I refer the fossil in question 

 to this family on the authority of M. Cuvier, who has exa- 

 mined it ; and without the highest sanction I should have 

 hesitated to announce such a fact, as it forms a case hitherto 

 unique in the annals of Geology, viz. that of the remains of a 

 land quadruped being found in a formation subjacent to the 

 chalk." 3 



In the course of the quarter of a century that has since 

 elapsed, six specimens of one side of the lower jaw, belonging 

 to three species of mammalia, have been obtained from Stones- 

 field ; and what is most remarkable, no other recognisable 

 parts of the 'skeleton have been discovered. 



STRUCTURE AND AFFINITIES OF THE FOSSIL MAMMALIA. 



1 Phascolotherium ; signifying A ncient phascolomys, or pouch-animal ; 

 indicative of its affinity to the Wombat of New South Wales. 



2 " Observations on the Jaw of a fossil Mammiferous Animal found 

 in the Stonesfield Slate." By J. W. Broderip, Esq. See "Zoological 

 Journal," 1828, p. 1. 



2 "Geol. Trans." New Series, vol. i. p. 398. 



