HISTORY OF THE MARSUPIALIA 637 



epicondylar foramen. ^Prothylacynus and \Borhyoma were the 

 largest of the Santa Cruz flesh-eaters and no doubt piu-sued the 

 smaller and more defenceless ungulates, but were hardly 



Fig. 298. — Skull of ^Borhytena, Santa Cruz. (After Sinclair, Reports Princeton 

 University Expeditions to Patagonia, Vol. IV.) 



sufficiently powerful to attack successfully the larger hoofed 

 animals, which were probably well able to defend them- 

 selves. 



Associated with these larger predaceous marsupials were 

 several much smaller kinds, ranging in size from a fox to a 

 weasel, which must have preyed upon the abimdant rodents 

 and other small 

 mammals and birds. 

 One of these {^Am- 

 phiproviverra) had 

 an opposable hallux, 



somewhat as m the pio. 299. — SkuU of small predaceous marsupial (Mmpfti- 

 OpOSSUmS, and was prmiverra manzaniana) , showing the punctured wound 

 , , . Ill from a bite. Princeton University Museum. 



therefore probably 



arboreal. An interesting specimen in the museum of Princeton 

 University illustrates the pugnacity of these small creatures ; 

 it is a skull in which the left upper canine was completely 



