212 tSASOOLOMtlD^. 



Skull Dimensions of Phascolarotus cinereus. 



Family III. PHASCOLOMYIDtE. 



Diprotodont Marsupials, adapted for a fossorial rhizopliagouB life. 

 Body stout and clumsy. Limbs subequal, very thick and strong. 

 Fore feet -with five subequal toes, each with a stout digging-claw ; 

 hind feet with a short nailless hallux and four well-developed toes, 

 the second and third showing a slight tendency towards syndactyly ; 

 all four with long curved claws. Tail rudimentary. Stomach 

 simple, but with a cardiac gland. Caecum present, short, provided 

 with an appendioc vermiformis. Pouch present. 



Dentition : — I. 



C, 



0.0.0.4 



M. 



x2=24. 



All the teeth rootless, with persistent pulps. Incisors large and 

 strong, the enamel restricted to their front and lateral surfaces. 

 The single premolar small, single-lobed, close to the molars. 

 Molars bilobed, strongly curved, their convexity internal above, 

 external below. 



Tooth-change aborted; mUk-p.* absent, or at least not yet 

 discovered; if ever present, shed or absorbed in infancy. Bullse 

 imperfect, open behind, their anterior wall formed by a downwardly 

 projecting process of the squamosal, instead of by the alisphenoid 

 as usual. 



Range. Australian Eegion, south of the Tropics. 



