82 



Marsupialia — Bettongia, etc. 



Table-case, 

 No. 14. 



have been a true carnivore (Fig. 102). This singular phalanger- 

 likc animal has the pair of large and characteristic middle 

 incisors seen in front, and two additional minute incisors in the 

 upper jaw, a minute canine above, but none below, three pre- 

 molars above and below on each side, and one small molar above 

 and two below. The last premolar is of enormous size, both 

 above and below, compressed laterally and trenchant. But in 

 all known Carnivorous (Polyprotodont) Marsupials the same 

 general plan of dentition is maintained as in the placental 



Fig. 103. — Skull and lower jaw of Bettongia (Hypsiprymnus) Grayi (Gould), living 



in Australia. 



c, is the upper canine tooth, immediately behind which the large sectorial premolar is seen- 



opposed to a similar tooth in the lower jaw. 



Fig. 104. — Lateral view of skull of the living kangaroo, Macropv.s Bennclli 

 (Waterhouse), Australia. 



Carnivora, i.e., the incisors are small, the canines are large and 

 well -formed for tearing flesh, and the molars have sharp tubercles, 

 whereas in Thylacoho the two central incisors above and below 

 are large and placed close together, as in the Phalangers ; the 

 other incisors are minute, and so also are the canines. 



The great sectorial premolar in Thylaeoleo has its exact 

 parallel in the corresponding premolar tooth in the rat- kangaroo, 

 Hypsiprymnus or Bettongia (Fig 103), which is enormously large- 

 and long, exceeding in lateral length the two anterior molars 

 combined, with from 11 to 13 external grooves. The upper canine 

 is also present, though small. This rat-kangaroo thus clearly 



