412 



ORDERS OF MAMMALIA. 



at no distant geological period, possessed a Marsupial fauna, 

 much resembling that which it has at present, but compara- 

 tively of a much more gigantic size. In the remains from the 

 Australian bone-caves, almost all the most characteristic living 

 Marsupials of Australia and Van Diemen's Land are repre- 

 sented ; but the extinct forms are usually of much greater size. 

 We have Wombats, Phalangers, Flying Phalangers, and Kan- 

 garoos, with carnivorous Marsupials resembling the recent 

 Thylacinus and Dasyurus. The two most remarkable of these 

 extinct forms are Diprotodon and Thylacoleo. In most essen- 

 tial respects Diprotodon resembled the Kangaroos, the denti- 

 tion, especially, showing many points of affinity. The hind- 



limbs, however, of Diprotodon 

 were by no means so dispro- 

 portionately long as in the 

 Kangaroos. In size, Dipro- 

 todon must have many times 

 exceeded the largest of the 

 living Kangaroos, since the 

 skull measures three feet in 

 length (fig. 341). 



Smaller than Diprotodon is 

 NototJierium, a genus which is 

 also most nearly allied to the living Kangaroos. 



Thylacoleo (fig. 342), like Plagiaulax, is in a disputed posi- 



Fig. MI. 



t Diprotodon Austraiis. 



Fig. 342. Skull of Thylacoleo. Post-Tertiary deposits of Australia. (After Flower.) 



