112 GUIDE TO THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM 



XIV. 



PALEONTOLOGY or FOSSILS. 



THE FOSSIL ORGANIC REMAINS in the Australian 

 Museum are at present arranged in three portions — the Ex- 

 tinct Vertebrata, the Australian Plants and Inverte- 

 brata, and a General Foreign Collection. 



THE EXTINCT VERTEBRATA are placed in the 

 Osteological Hall in five table cases (Nos, 13 to 17) sup- 

 plemented by larger objects on pedestals round the hall. The 

 EXTINCT MAMMALIA OF AUSTRALIA take a 

 prominent place in this part of the collection, and include many 

 specimens figured by the ^-eteran Palaeontologist Sir 

 Richard Owen, in his remarkable Memoirs on the " Extinct 

 Mammals of Australia." It is now generally accepted that 

 these forerunners of the present Australian Marsupials greatly 

 exceeded the latter in size, and this fact is well demonstrated 

 in the remains now before us. 



In one case (No. 14) are bones of Kangaroos from the bone- 

 breccia of the Wellington Valley Caves, placed by Professor 

 Owen in the genera talorcliestes^ Procoi^todon^ Proteinnodon, and 

 Sthenurios. 



The next case (No. 15), to the west of that to which we have 

 just referred, contains the bones of the " Pouched Dog," 

 Thylacoleo carnifex, Owen. Unlike the true Kangaroos just 

 mentioned, which Avere strictly herbivorous, this animal subsisted 

 on flesh. In the same case are also the pelvis and the limb 

 bones of a true Thylacinns from Wellington, and the skull of a 

 very large species from the Murrumbidgee Caves at Cave Flat. 



Contiguous to the last case, are others (Nos. 16 and 17) contain- 

 ing the remains of the huge Diprotodon aust7'cdis, the largest of the 

 Marsupials, the skull alone measuring three feet in length in full 

 grown individuals. It was herbivorous in habit, is believed to 



