310 EXTINCT MONSTERS 



Since the year 1893 numerous complete skeletons have been 

 found. However, very great difficulties have to be overcome in 

 digging out these very fragile (and crushed) bones, and trans- 

 porting them on the backs of camels ; so that even now some 

 parts of the skeleton are more or less unknown. As the result of 

 years of labour, a " restoration " of the skeleton has been set up in 

 the South Australian Museum, of which a plaster copy was pre- 

 sented to the Cambridge Museum of Zoology. The authorities 

 of the former Museum have also been good enough to present to 

 the Natural History Museum a set of actual limb-bones, and 

 vertebrae of the tail, together with enough plaster casts to make 

 the highly interesting restoration shown in Plate LV. In this 

 specimen the head and the vertebrae from the neck to the sacral 

 region (i.e. to where the hind limbs are situated) are exact copies 

 of the Adelaide reconstruction. The skull, unfortunately, is not 

 to be relied upon, being only a reconstructed model based on 

 specimens from Lake Callabonna, which are all sadly crushed. 

 Hence we are still in ignorance of the precise shape of the skull. 

 A recent examination of the specimen from Queensland described 

 by Owen shows that nearly all the brain-case is wanting, and that 

 the skull was four or five inches shorter than Owen supposed. 

 The two scapulae, or shoulder blades, in the London model, are 

 casts from two actual specimens from Queensland ; and the feet 

 are also casts from actual specimens. Possibly before long the 

 whole model may be reconstructed. Meanwhile, paleontologists 

 will await with a lively interest, the publication of a promised 

 memoir by Dr. Stirling and Dr. Zietz. Mr. Dollo has suggested 

 that possibly the ancestors of Diprotodon were arboreal creatures, 

 a conclusion based on the evidence of the feet. 



In conclusion, it only remains to express a hope that the reader 

 may have been interested in our humble endeavours to describe 



