II.] 



MARSUPIALS. 



39 



( Chceropus\ which includes only the pig-footed bandicoot, being 

 confined to Australia. 



In the second family, or Dasyurida, the genus Thyladnus is 

 now confined to Tasmania, but it was represented during the 

 Plistocene period on the Australian mainland, where one species 

 is stated to have been obtained from beds of Pliocene age. A 

 similar distribution also obtains in the case of the genus Sarcophifas, 

 now represented only by the well-known Tasmanian devil. 



FIG. 4. BANDED ANTEATER. (Myrmecobius fasciatus.) 



Although mainly Australian, the smaller animals known as dasyures 

 (Dasyurus] have, however, a single Papuan representative ; while 

 the pouched mice (Phascologale) are likewise common to the two 

 areas, one of the species ranging from New Guinea to eastern and 

 southern Australia. On the other hand, both the narrow-footed 

 pouched mice (Sminthopsis) and the jumping pouched mouse 

 (Antechinomys] are exclusively Australian. The same is the case 



