MAMMALIA. 



skull and mandible (Fig. 73), in Table-case 14. This animal 

 was regarded by Owen as having preyed upon the large 

 Australian herbivores in the same way that the lion feeds 

 at present on the antelopes and other herbivores in Africa. 

 The lion-like shape of the head and jaws, with the great 

 cutting tooth followed behind Ijy little crushing teeth, seemed 

 to Owen to justify this conclusion. Other naturalists, 

 however, have doubted whether Thylacolco fed on flesh, or at 

 least was more than a mixed feeder, because its large front 

 teeth are incisors, and no known existing carnivore has 

 canine teeth too small for grasping. 



The undoul:)ted carnivorous marsupials contemporary 

 with the extinct animals just enumerated, were identical 

 with those still surviving in Tasmania. They are species 



Table-case 

 14. 



Fig. 73. — Skull and lower jaw of ThylacuU <i cui hlJl.i, liom the Pleistocene 

 of Australia; one-fifth nat. size. (Table-case 14.) 



of the " Tasmanian Wolf" {Thylacinus) and the " Tasmanian 

 Devil " (»S'arro;)/M776,s), of wliich jaws arc exhibited in Table- 

 ca.se 14. 



Unfortunately, "no satisfactcny remains of mammals are 

 known i'rom rocks l)elow the Pleistocene in the Australian 

 region ; and tlie exact connection between the pouched 

 animals of Australia and the mammals of other parts of 

 the world has not yet been revealed l)y fossils. It is, 

 however, interesting to notice tliat the Tasmanian Thylaciims 

 and SarcojjhUns just mentioned are essentially similar to 

 the Creodonta, wliicli ilourished in the northern hemisphere 

 at the l)egiuning of the Tertiary period (see p. IG), and to 

 the Sparassodonta, which survived until still later times in 

 South America (see p. 17). It is also worthy of remark that 

 the small pouched opossums, now confined to the American 



