HISTORY OF THE MARSUPIALIA 



633 



posterior half of the back and base of the tail. Apparently the 

 creature is in process of losing its stripes and acquiring the soUd 

 body-coloui'. The dental formula is : f 3, c j, p|, w^, X 2 = 46 ; 

 the incisors are small, the canines large fangs, and the premolars 

 simple ; the upper molars are tritubercular, with large inner 

 cusp and postero-external cutting ridge, and the lower molars 

 are trenchant, \\'ith low heel. The whole dentition is remark- 

 ably like that of many Eocene fcreodonts, such as JSinopa and 



Fig. 296. — Th\'lafiiie. or " Tasnianian Wolf " ( Thyi'irjt'us rynoctphalmK — 

 By permission of W. S. Berridge. London. 



]Tntemnodon (see p. 566). The milk-premolar is small and 

 functionless and is shed very early. The skull is very wolf- 

 hke in appearance, but thoroughly marsupial in stracture, 

 and has the large palatal vacuities connnon in the order. The 

 marsupial bones do not ossify and are CA-identh- on the point 

 of disappearance. There are five digits in the manus, fom- in 

 the pes, the hallux being completely suppressed. In habits, 

 the Thylacine is carnivorous and so destructive to sheep that 

 the farmers have nearlv exterminated it. 



