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Ch. IX.] 



AT SUCCESSIVE GEOLOGICAL PERIODS 



150 



marsupial, Professor Owen pointed out that the extinct genus 

 to which it belonged had considerable affinity to an Austra- 



Fig 3 - 



Natural size. 



Thylacotherium Prevostii {Valenciennes). Amphitherium (Owen). Lower jar,, 



from the slate of Stonesfield, near Oxford* 



ian mammifer, the Myrmecohius of Waterhouse, which ha 

 nine molar teeth in the lower jaw (see fig. 4). 



Myrmecobms fasciatus ( Waterhouse). Recent from Swan River. Lower jaw 



of the natural size.f 



same 



opossum 



ao-rees nearly in osteological character, and precisely in the 

 number of its teeth (fig. 5, p. 160). But the most remark- 

 -vi~ „i-„n +i^ m o™ m cHc nf whioh the remains have been 



made 



0> 



* This figure (No. 3) is from a draw- 

 ing by Professor C. Prevost, published 

 Ann. *des Sci. Nat. Avril, 1825. The 



being characteristic of the mammalia. 

 Ten molars are preserved, and the place 

 of an eleventh is believed to be appa- 



fossil is a lower jaw, adhering by its rent. The enamel of some of the teeth 

 inner side to the slab of oolite, in which is well preserved, 

 it is sunk. The form of the condyle, or 

 posterior process of the jaw, is convex, 

 agreeing with the mammiferous type, 

 and is distinctly seen, an impression of 

 it being left on the stone, although in 

 this specimen the bone is wanting. The 

 anterior part of the jaw has been par- 

 tially broken away, so that the double _ # 

 fangs of the molar teeth are seen fixed known to have nine molar teeth m tne 

 in their sockets, the form of the fangs lower jaw, and some of the teeth are 



t A coloured figure of this small and 

 elegant quadruped is given in the Trans. 

 Zool. Soc. vol. ii. pi. 28. It is insect- 

 ivorous, and was taken in a hollow 

 tree, in a country abounding in ant- 

 hills, ninety miles to the south-east of 

 the mouth of Swan Kiver in Australia, 



It is the first living marsupial species 



