POUCHED MAMMALS, OR MARSUPIALS. 181 



stout, clumsily built creature somewhat resembling a 

 small bear, by which name it is indeed commonly 

 known to the colonists. The Wombats, which are the 

 only other living representatives of the Diprotodont 

 group, differ from all the other forms in having only 

 a single pair of upper front teeth. These animals are 

 about the size of a Badger, and furnished with immensely 

 powerful claws, with which they dig the deep burrows 

 in which they dwell. 



We have already said that the largest living 

 Kangaroo is somewhat taller than a man, but some of 

 the extinct species found in several parts of Australia 

 attained considerably larger dimensions. All these 

 creatures were, however, comparative dwarfs besides 

 the huge extinct Australian animal of which the skull 

 is shown in Fig. 53. This animal, technically known 

 as the Diprotodon, and fully as large as a Ehinoceros, 

 was allied in the structure of its teeth to the Kangaroos ; 

 the fore-limbs were, however, nearly as long as the 

 hind ones, so that the creature doubtless walked in the 

 ordinary manner. 



The whole of the Diprotodonts, both recent and 

 fossil, are confined to the Australian region, so that we 

 must regard them, in all probability, as a specialised 

 offshoot which has arisen there from the ancestors of 

 the more generalised group now to be noticed. 



All the remaining Marsupials differ from the Di- 

 protodonts in that their teeth form a more regular 

 series, without any very marked interval ; the front 

 teeth being small, and flanked laterally by a larger 



