Prof. Owen on a Mastodontoid Pachyderm. 7 



cannot be argued that they have perished, for the most deh- 

 cate bones are preserved, as well as the finest scales of the 

 Lepisosteus ; so that, to say the least, there certainly appears to 

 be a difficulty in referring them to the Crocodile. 



There are other genera the remains of which are found in 

 the Wealden formation, but very little is known respecting 

 them, and it would be little better than conjecture to refer the 

 scales in question to the Megalosaurus or the Phytosaurus, be- 

 cause there were difficulties in referring them to the Crocodile 

 or the Iguanodon. Before long it may be hoped that other 

 specimens will be found under more favourable circumstances 

 with respect to their determination. 



III. — On the Discovery of the Remains of a Mastodontoid 

 Pachyderm in Australia. By Prof. Owen, F.R.S. 



To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History. 

 Gentlemen, 

 I HAVE lately received a letter, dated April 6, 1842, from 

 Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, Surveyor-General of Au- 

 stralia, in which he announces the interesting discovery of 

 large fossil mammalian remains in that continent. The spe- 

 cimens from the bone-caves in Wellington Valley, described 

 in the second volume of Sir Thomas's work on Australia, 

 were, it may be remembered, remains of extinct species of 

 marsupial genera now existing in that continent, and of a 

 genus very nearly allied to the existing ones ; the largest fos- 

 sil, which had been supposed to belong to a Hippopotamus 

 or Dugong, indicating rather an extinct gigantic Phascolome ; 

 and there was not any conclusive evidence of a genus of pla- 

 cental mammal in that collection*. 



The fossils, which my friend has now transmitted, incon- 

 testably establish the former existence of a huge proboscidian 

 Pachyderm in the Australian continent, referable to either the 

 genus Mastodon or Dinotherium. These fossils consist of a 

 portion of a molar tooth, and of the shaft of a femur with part 

 of the spine of a scapula, and some smaller fragments of a long 

 bone. Sir Thomas states, " these are not satisfactory speci- 

 mens such as I hope soon to send you, but being the first 

 from the locality, I am anxious you should first hear of them. 

 1 can tell you biit little of the manner in which they occur ; 

 but such bones are found on the Darling Downs — those ex- 

 tensive plains which you will see marked to the S.W. of 

 Moreton Bay on most maps of this country. They are at the 



* Mr. Pentland informs me that a bone of a large quadruped, apparently 

 a pachyderm, from the Wellington Valley, is, he believes, in the Museum 

 at Paris. 



