PHASCOLOMTID^. 157 



6, 7 ; and iu the ' Extinct Mammals of Australia,' pi. liii. 

 figs. 6, 7. Purchased, 1857. 



32911 X. Fragment of the left ramus of the mandible, showing the 

 last three true molars ; from the Condamine Eiver. 

 JN'oticed by Owen in the ' Phil. Trans.' 1872, p. 194. 



Purchased, 1857. 



43303 X. Fragment of the right ramus of the mandible, showing 



(Fig.) the last three true molars ; from a caTern in the Wellington 



Yalley, New South Wales. Figured by Owen in the ' Phil. 



Trans.' 1872, pi. xxxviii. figs. 5, 6, and in the ^Extinct 



Mammals of Australia,' pi. ixiii. figs. 5, 6. 



Purchased. About 1852. 



Genus PHASCOLONUS, Owen\ 

 Syn. (F) Scepm-nodony Owen - (ex Eamsay, MS.). 



There is every probability that the upper incisors on which Sce^arn- 

 odon is founded belong to P. gic/as, and it is on this provisional 

 reference that the latter is genericaliy separated from Phascolomys. 



The upper incisors are wider than the lower, are much compressed 

 antero-posteriorly, have a bevelled cutting-edge, a concave posterior 

 surface, and their enamelled surface directed anteriorly ; in the 

 lower incisors the biting-surface is much elongated. 



The action of the upper upon the lower incisors must have been 

 analogous to that obtaining in Dijprotodon. 



Phascolonus gigas, Owen ^ 



Syn. Phascolomys gigas, Owen ^. 



(?) Sceparnodon rarnsayi, Oweu '. 



This is the type and only known species ; it was apparently about 

 equal in size to a Tapir, but of much stouter build. The inferior 

 border of the mandible has the great convexity characteristic of the 

 Latifront group of PJmscolomys, but the masseteric fossa is deeper, 

 and has a prominent inferior ridge ; pm. 4 has the ellipsoidal section 

 of the Platyrhine group, and pm. 4 the complexity characteristic of 

 the latter ; in the partially compressed upper incisors P.platyrhinus 



^ Phil. Trans. 1872, p. 257 (as a subgenus). 



2 Ibid. 1884, p. 245. 



3 * Encylopoedia Britannica,' 8th ed. vol. xvii. p. 175 (1859). — Phascolomys^ 

 * Loc. cit. 



5 Phil. Trans. 1884, p. 247. 



