360 BihliograpMcal Notice. 



large laniariform teeth are reduced to a pair in both the pleistocene 

 paucidentate Carnivore of Australia and its smaller British predecessor 

 from the Upper Oolite. The multidentate marsupial Ferines from 

 near the Lower Oolite (Amphitherium, Amphilestes, e. g.) are repre- 

 sented bj'the rare and singular still existing Australian genus Mymie- 

 cohius. The mandible and mandibular dentition of the typodentate 

 carnivore Phascolothenum, a British extinct genus of like antiquity, 

 find their characters more nearly repeated in Thylacinus and Sarco- 

 philus than in any ex- Australian genera." The author subsequently 

 sums lip the evidences of existing Australian forms of vegetable and 

 animal life which recall or repeat characters of the extinct forms 

 revealed by fossils from British Mesozoie strata. 



The Australian fossils which form the main subject of the present 

 work are of the marsupial order, and are referred to the two sub- 

 orders Polyprotodontia, or those with lower incisors more than two 

 in number, and Diprotadontia, or those in which the lower incisors 

 are limited to two in number. 



The first suborder is represented by species of SarcopMlus and 

 Thylacinus, some larger than the existing species, others of the 

 same size, but from Australian localities where thej- have ceased to 

 exist, the genera being represented hy living species now confined to 

 Tasmania. An extinct bandicoot {Perameles tenuirostris) is also 

 referred to the Polyprotodont group. The suborder Diprotodontia 

 is divided into two sections, SarcopTiagn and Poepliaga. 



In the first section the remains of Thylacoleo are described and 

 figured in detail, and the physiological deductions therefrom are fully 

 discussed (pj). 107-184). The Poepliaga are distributed, according 

 to the characters of the limbs, into the tribes Gh-avigrada, Fossona, 

 and Saltigrada. The first of these tribes is represented by the 

 genera Diprotodon and Nototherium (pp. 189-287), the species of 

 which, of the size of the rhinoceros and ox, are all extinct. 



The tribe Fossoria is still reiDresented by the wombat, but for- 

 merly included species of the size of a tapir (Phascolonus gigas 

 &c.), with modifications generically distinguishing them from the 

 existing Phascolomys. 



To the tribe Saltigrada the author refers seven extinct genera, 

 besides representatives of the existing Macropus, some of which 

 exceeded the largest living kangaroos in size. ?^ot fewer than 

 eighteen extinct species are characterized, and in part restored, of 

 the larger Saltigrades, besides species of the smaller existing genera 

 Hypsiprymnus and Bettongia. 



After a survey of the 522 pages and 132 plates recording these 

 ' Eesearches on the Fossil Mammals of Australia,' to which the 

 author has devoted part of his annual labours since 1836, he might 

 well be pardoned in indulging '' in the flattering thought that the 

 chances were small of future discoveries of new species of large 

 extinct marsupial quadrupeds in the Australian continent." But 

 he checks hijnself by the following remark : — " Warned, however, 

 by the rate of progress of the science of palaeontology since the 



