335 



1546. A fragment of the left ramus of the lower jaw of the Dasyurus laniarius, 

 with the first and second true molar teeth in situ. 



From one of the bone-caves in Wellington Valley, Australia 



Presented by Count Strzelecki. 



1547. The second true molar, left side, lower jaw, of the Dasyurus laniarius. 



From one of the caves in Wellington Valley, Australia. 



Presented by Count Strzelecki. 

 1547 1 . The crown of a canine tooth of the Dasyurus laniarius. 

 From one of the caves in Wellington Valley, Australia. 



Presented by Count Strzelecki. 



Genus Thylacinus. 



1548. A portion of the left ramus of the lower jaw of the great Cave Thylacine 



(Thylacinus spelceus, Owen), with the first and second premolars in situ, 

 and part of the socket of the canine and of the third premolar tooth. 

 The present fossil is distinguished from the corresponding part in the 

 large extinct and existing species of Dasyurus, by the compressed 

 crowns of the premolar teeth, and by the interspaces which divide them 

 from each other and from the third premolar tooth, also by the deeper 

 and more compressed form of the lower jaw ; in all which characters the 

 present fossil agrees with the Great Dog-headed Opossum {Thylacinus 

 Harrisii) of Van Diemen's Land*. The depth of the jaw below the first 

 premolar tooth is nine lines in the fossil, that of the corresponding part 

 of the jaw in the existing Thylacine is seven lines. 



From one of the caves in Wellington Valley, Australia. 



Presented by Count Strzelecki. 



* A fine specimen of the anterior extremity of the lower jaw of the Thylacinus spelaus was ob- 

 tained by Sir T. L. Mitchell from the bone-caves in Wellington Valley, and is figured in his ' Expedi- 

 tions into Australia,' vol. ii. pi. 31. fig. 7, where (p. 363) I have described it as having the teeth wider 

 apart than in the Dasyurus ursinus, which led me " to doubt whether it was the lower jaw of the Das. 

 laniarius, or of some extinct marsupial carnivore of an allied but distinct species." At that period 

 there was no skull of the existing Thylacine in the Museum of the College. The subsequent acqui- 

 sition of that rare animal has enabled me to refer both Sir Thomas Mitchell's specimens and those of 

 Count Strzelecki to the genus Thylacinus, no species of which is now known to exist in the continent 

 of Australia. 



