II.] MARSUPIALS. 37 



phalangers, constituting the genus Pseudochirus, are common to 

 Australia and New Guinea. Another exclusively Australian type 

 is to be found in the taguan flying phalanger (Petauroides) ; but of 

 the non-volant striped phalangers (Dactylopsila) one species is 

 common to Queensland, the Aru Islands, and New Guinea, while 

 the second is exclusively Papuan. The true flying phalangers of 

 the genus Petaurus include two Australian species, and a third, 

 common to northern and eastern Australia and New Guinea and 

 the adjacent islands. Leadbeater's phalanger (Gymnobelideus), 

 which appears to be closely related to the ancestral stock 

 from which were evolved the members of the last genus, is 

 restricted to Victoria ; but the dormouse-phalangers of the genus 



FIG. 3. SKULL OF EXTINCT PHALANGER (Thylacoleo carnifex). 



Dromicia have both Australian and Papuan representatives, while 

 the pen-tailed phalanger (Distachurus) is exclusively from New 

 Guinea, and of the two pigmy flying phalangers (Acrobates), one is 

 Australian and the other Papuan. Lastly, the aberrant long- 

 snouted phalanger ( Tarsipes), representing a sub-family by itself, 

 is confined to Western Australia. Remains of species belonging 

 to some of the existing genera have been disinterred from the 

 caves of New South Wales and the Plistocene deposits of Queens- 

 land; while several more or less imperfectly known extinct 

 generic types have been described. Among the latter, by far the 

 most remarkable is Thylacoleo, which was a gigantic phalanger 

 comparable in size to a large leopard, and distinguished by the 

 great development of the last premolar tooth in each jaw. The 



