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IX. On the Osteology of the llarsiqnaMa. — (Part V.) Fam. Poephaga, Genus Macropus. 

 By Professor Owen, C.B., F.B.S., F.Z.S., &c. 



Eead June 2nd, 1874. 



[Plates LXXIV.-LXXXIII.] 



§ 1. Introduction. 



XHE combination of the marsupial economy with herbivorous diet, and of unguiculate 

 fore paws having the requisite extent and variety of movements for the manipulation 

 of the pouch with a power of swift and extensive locomotion for attaining fresh 

 pastures and escaping enemies, results in one of the most singular modifications of the 

 ten-estrial mammalian form ; and one cannot be surprised that a passing glimpse of the 

 first Kangaroo by Banks and his fellow voyagers on their landing at Botany Bay left 

 the impression that they had seen hopping away from them some strange, large, new, 

 wingless bird. 



In fact, the work of ordinary locomotion on land, in the poephagous Marsupials, 

 is transferred to and concentrated upon the hinder end and members, the fore limbs 

 being reserved, as in birds, for other functions. This involves modifications of the 

 whole frame, and especially of the proportions and structure of the caudal vertebrae and 

 pelvic limbs. 



Pander and D'Alton, in their elegant work on the skeletons of the Mammalia', have 

 given in the Part devoted to the Marsupialia^ reduced views of the skeletons of 

 Macropus major, Shaw, and M. (Ilalmaturus) elegans, F. Cuvier, with full-sized 

 figures of those of Hypsijyrymnus miirimis, Illig., and of some species of Dideljjhys. In 

 the same Part the skull and atlas of Macropus major are figured of the natural size, 

 and a somewhat reduced view is given of the carpus and tarsus in that Kangaroo. A 

 front view of the pelvis of a young Kangaroo, in relation to its osteogeny, is given in 

 my article " Marsupialia " ^ and the bony palate, with the dentition and part of the 

 base of the skull of Macropus bennettii, is figured, of the natural size, in the first of 

 the present series of papers ". I may also refer to a sketch, by Pallas, of a skull of a 

 young Macropus major, and to a reduced figure of a section of the skull of the Thylacine 

 (No. 1905, Mus. of the Eoyal College of Surgeons, Catalogue of the Osteology, 4to, 



' In oblong folio, 1821-31. " 'Die Skelete der Beutelthiere,' Bonn, 1828. 



' Cyclopaedia of Anatomy, vol. iii. (1847) p. 284, fig. 110. 

 ' Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. ii. (1838) p. 406, pi. 71. fig. 5. 



VOL. IX. — PAET vin. March, 187Q. 3l 



