MAMMALIA. 79 



skull and mandible (Fig. 73), in Table-case 14. This animal Table-ease 



was regarded by Owen as having preyed upon the large 14 - 



Australian herbivores in the same way that the lion feeds 



at present on the antelopes and other herbivores in Africa. 



The lion-like shape of the head and jaws, with the great 



cutting tooth followed behind by little crushing teeth, seemed 



to Owen to justify this conclusion. Other naturalists, 



however, have doubted whether Thylacoleo fed on flesh, or at 



least was more than a mixed feeder, because its large front 



teeth are incisors, and no known existing carnivore has 



canine teeth too small for grasping. 



The undoubted carnivorous marsupials contemporary 

 with the extinct animals just enumerated, were identical 

 with those still surviving in Tasmania. They are species 



Fig. 73. — Skull and lower jaw o£ Thylacoleo carnifex, from the Pleistocene 

 of Australia ; one-fifth nat. size. (Table-case 14.) 



of the " Tasmanian Wolf" (Thylacinus) and the " Tasmanian 

 Devil " (Sarcophilus), of which jaws are exhibited in Table- 

 case 14. 



Unfortunately no satisfactory remains of mammals are 

 known from rocks below the Pleistocene in the Australian 

 region ; and the exact connection between the pouched 

 animals of Australia and the mammals of other parts of 

 the world has not yet been revealed by fossils. It is, 

 however, interesting to notice that the Tasmanian Thylacinus 

 and Sarcophilus just mentioned are essentially similar to 

 the Creodonta, which flourished in the northern hemisphere 

 at the beginning of the Tertiary period (see p. 16), and to 

 the Sparassodonta, which survived until still later times in 

 South America (see p. 17). It is also worthy of remark that 

 the small pouched opossums, now confined to the American 



