PHASCOLOTHERIUM. 65 



The general form and proportions of the coronoid pro- 

 cess (fig. 20, i,) resemble those in the zoophagous Marsu- 

 pials ; but in the depth and form of the entering notch, 

 between this process and the condyle, it corresponds most 

 closely with the Thylacinus. 



It is, indeed, a most interesting fact, that this rare and 

 solitary genus, represented by a single species (the Hyaena of 

 the Tasmanian colonists), whose term of existence seems fast 

 waning to its close, should afford the only example of a form 

 and backward extension of the coronoid process, and a corre- 

 sponding deep emargination above the condyle, which would 

 else exclusively characterize the ancient Phascolotherium. 



The base of the inwardly-bent angle of the lower jaw 

 progressively increases in Didelphys, Dasyurus, and Thyla- 

 cinus ; and judging from the fractured surface of the cor- 

 responding part in the fossil, it also resembles most nearly, 

 in this respect, the Thylacinus. 



The condyle of the jaw is nearer the plane of the in- 

 ferior margin of the ramus in the Thylacine than in the 

 Dasyures or Opossums ; and, consequently, when the 

 inflected angle is broken off, the curve of the line continued 

 from the condyle along the lower margin of the jaw in the 

 Thylacine is least ; in this particular again the Phascolo- 

 there resembles the Thylacine. In the position of the 

 dental foramen, the Phascolothere, like the Amphithere, 

 differs from all the zoophagous Marsupials already cited, 

 and also from the placental Fera, ; but in the Potoroo 

 (Hypsiprymnus), a marsupial Herbivore, the orifice of the 

 dental canal is situated, as in the Stonesfield Marsupials, 

 very near the vertical line, dropped from the last molar tooth. 



A portion of the inner wall of the jaw, near its anterior 

 margin, in the Phascolothere, has been broken off, so that 

 the form of the symphysis cannot be precisely determined ; 



