ORDER MARSUPIALIA. 



1279 



which the cheek-teeth number Pm. -, M. -, and the humerus has 



3 4 



a foramen ; but in the Pleistocene of Australia there occurs the 

 considerably larger T. spelmus. Sarcophilus, of which the dentition 

 is shown in fig. 11 48, is also confined at the present day to Tas- 



Fig. 1148. — Left lateral view of the dentition of Sarcophilus ursinus. Recent, Tasmania, i, 

 Incisors ; c, Canine ; pm, Premolars ; m, Molars. The tooth marked pm 2 is really pm 3. 



mania, but a larger species inhabited the mainland of Australia in 

 the Pleistocene. Indications of specialisation are shown by the 

 reduction of the premolars to two, and also by the loss of the fora- 

 men in the humerus. The most generalised genus of the subfamily 

 is Dasyurus, comprising several species of smaller size than the pre- 

 ceding. In the lower molars (fig. 1145) the blade has three cusps 

 arranged in a triangle, and thus differs from those of Thylaanus, in 



Fig. w^.—Myriuecobiusjasciatus, Australia. Reduced. 



which the inner cusp is wanting. There is a mylohyoid groove in 

 the mandible, and the humerus has a foramen. Species of Dasyurus 

 at the present day range over the whole of the Australian continent, 

 one of them dating from the Pleistocene. The subfamily Myrmeco- 



