318 GERARD KREFFT ON DIPROTODON MOLAR TEETH. 



In conclusion, I beg to point out the peculiar manner in which 

 the premolar of the Diprotodons has been gradually modified from 

 the typical serrated and broad tooth, as we know it in the Kangaroo 

 tribe, and more particularly in some of the Bettongs, to the rounded 

 premolar of the Phalangers. In the gigantic species, such as the 

 Dijprotodon, we often find premolars which are evidently nothing 

 more than the elongate typical Bettong tooth doubled up, an excel- 

 lent example of it being afforded by Professor Huxley's drawing on 

 the plate before referred to, figs. 2 and 3 (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 

 vol. xviii. pi. xxi.). 



I take this opportunity to draw the attention of palaeontologists 

 to the erroneous conclusions often arrived at by those who are not 

 intimately acquainted with the modern marsupial fauna, and who 

 believe, because in the Kangaroo tribe the female is generally smaller 

 than the male, that the same rule may be applied to the Phalangers^ 

 and more particularly to the gigantic extinct Phalangers belonging 

 to the genus Diprotodon. 



I believe that my view, regarding Diprotodon and allied genera 

 being true Phalangers, has been generally accepted ; and as in this 

 tribe the female is often larger than the male, it would not be cor- 

 rect to class fossil remains, and more particularly molar teeth, as be- 

 longing to female or young animals (of the species Dijprotodon aus- 

 tralis for example) because these teeth happen to be smaller than the 

 teeth which are generally put down by otherwise great authorities 

 as the teeth of old males. 



Some of the largest Wombats and the largest Koala in the Aus- 

 tralian-Museum collection are females. The common Phalangers (P. 

 vulpina), whereof I once obtained more than fifty specimens for this 

 purpose, proved my surmise to be correct, the largest animals being 

 often females. 



