74 Marsupialia — Kangaroos, etc. 



have been discovered in the Older Pliocene deposits of the Island 

 of Samos, Asia Minor, and of Maragha, Persia. 



Fig. 88.— Lateral view of the skull of the living Cape Ant-eater, Orycteropus 

 capensis (Gm.) ; South Africa (reduced). 



Such a wide geographical distribution naturally implies a 

 correspondingly great antiquity in geological time for this 

 singular group, which must have witnessed most marked 

 changes in the configuration of the ancient continents, on parts 

 of which its modern descendants now find themselves so widely 

 separated geographically. 



Sub-class II. — Didelphia. 

 Order X.— MARSUPIALIA. (Kaxgaroo, Wombat, &c.) 



"Wall-case, Just as the South American Continent had, in past ages, 



No. 27. its peculiar group of colossal Edentata, represented at the pre- 



Table-cases, sent day by the Ant-eater, the Armadillo and Tree-Sloth, so the 

 and 15 great Island- Continent of Australia had formerly its peculiar 



indigenous fauna of huge Marsupialia, represented by the 

 existing Kangaroos, Wombats, and Phalangers. 



The Marsupialia or " pouched animals " comprise a curious 

 series of mammals, offering at the present day considerable 

 variety in form, but all characterized (with the single exception 

 of Thylacinus* the " Tasmanian wolf ") by possessing a pair of 

 long, slender, " epipubic " bones attached to the anterior edge of 

 the pelvis, commonly called " marsupial bones," but bearing no 

 special relation to the external pouch or marsupium,f and 

 present alike in both sexes. The young in this order are brought 



* In Thi/Iacinustke epipubic bones are cartilaginous only. 

 + There is no pouch or marsupiura in some of the Opossums. 



