MARSUPIALIA. 261 



the Lower Miocene of the Auvergne, Rhenish Prussia, and 

 Wurtemberg. The well-known imperfect marsupial skeleton 

 described by Cuvier from the Paris Gypsum (Upper Eocene) 

 probably belongs to the same genus. 



The Dasyuridae, or typical carnivorous marsupials of the 

 Australian region, are scarcely known among fossils, though a 

 few remains are found in the superficial deposits of the country 

 they now inhabit. These remains show that the " Tasmauian 

 Devil " (Thylacinus), at present quite restricted to Tasmania, 

 was represented by a still larger species on the Australian 

 mainland in the Pleistocene period. Certain jaws discovered 

 in the Santa Cruz Formation (supposed Miocene) of Patagonia, 

 South America, are also curiously similar in aspect to those of 

 the thylacine (see Prothylacinus patagonicus, p. 388, fig. 218). 



Nothing is known of the ancestry of the Peramelidae, or 

 bandicoots, of Australia. Remains of existing genera are found 

 in the Wellington Caves, New South Wales. 



Myrmecobius is unknown among fossils. 



Sub-Order 2. Diprotodontia. 



The DIPROTODONTIA, or marsupials with a pair of enlarged 

 lower incisors and atrophied canines, are all confined to the 

 Australian region, except one or more aberrant families of 

 dwarfed animals which have recently been discovered in South 

 America. This assuming, of course, that the extinct Multi- 

 tuberculata (p. 248) are Prototherian rather than Metatherian 

 mammals. 



The aberrant South American groups, which seem to be 

 comparatively primitive, are the Epanorthidae, Abderitidae, 

 and their allies, chiefly represented by jaws in the Santa Cruz 

 Formation (supposed Miocene) of Patagonia, but surviving in a 

 genus of rat-shaped animals (Ccenolestes) known to occur in 

 Ecuador and Colombia.' JEpanorthus, Acdestis, Garzonia, and 

 Abderites are among the principal extinct genera. 



Epanorthus. Known only by minute jaws and other fragments of the 



skull. Dental formula : !' 3 ' c ' *' pm ' 3 >-~ The upper incisors are 

 i. 1, c. 1, pm. 4, m. 4 



relatively small and uniform; the canine is larger and strongly arched, 



