CHAPTER VIII. 



VAKIOUS EXTINCT ANIMALS; — AND ON THE ANTIQUITY OF THE 

 GENERA OF INSECTS AND LAND MOLLUSCA. 



EXTINCT MAMMALIA OF AUSTRALIA. 



These have all been obtained from caves and late Tertiary or 

 Post-Tertiary deposits, and consist of a large number of extinct 

 forms, some of gigantic size, but all marsupials and allied to the 

 existing fauna. There are numerous forms of kangaroos, some 

 larger than any living species ; and among these are two genera, 

 Protemnodon and Sthenurus, which Professor Garrod has lately 

 shown to have been allied, not to any Australian forms, but to 

 the Dendrolagi or tree-kangaroos of New Guinea. We have 

 also remains of Tliylacinus and Dasyurus, which now only exist 

 in Tasmania ; and extinct species of Hypsiprymnus and Phasco- 

 lomys, the latter as large as a tapir. Among the more remarkable 

 extinct genera are Diprotodon, a huge thick-limbed animal 

 allied to the kangaroos, but nearly as large as an elephant; 

 Notothcrium, having characters of Macropus and Phascolard <>s 

 combined, and as large as a rhinoceros ; and Thylacolco, a pha- 

 langer-like marsupial nearly as large as a lion, and supposed by 

 Professor Owen to have been of carnivorous habits, though tins 

 opinion is not held by other naturalists. 



Here then we find the same phenomena as in the other coun- 

 tries we have already discussed, — the very recent disappearance 

 of a large number of peculiar forms, many of them far surpassing 

 in size any that continue to exist. It hardly seems probable 

 that in this case their disappearance can have been due to the 

 direct effects of the Glacial epoch, since no very extensive glacia- 



