4 I2 



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). 

 Fig. 341. skull of Diprotodon Austraiis. Smaller than Diprotodon'^ 

 Nototherium, a genus which is 

 also most nearly allied to the living Kangaroos. 



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



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



