280 MArsupiALiA. 



A. South- Ameet CAN Pleistocene Species. 



The following specimens are from the Caverns of Minas Geraes, 

 Brazil; and belong to the Claussen Collection. Purchased, 1845. 



As was pointed out by Waterhouse \ they apparently all belong 

 to existing species ; but the large number of the latter inhabiting 

 Brazil renders it extremely difficult in many instances to make 

 precise specific determinations on the evidence of fossil lower jaws. 

 The following references must therefore be regarded in many 

 instances as provisional, and can only be taken as indicating that 

 the specimens cannot be distinguished from the species under which 

 they are placed ; and it is highly probable that the fossils really 

 belong to a larger number of species than those under which they 

 are provisionally arranged. Lund in all cases distinguished the 

 fossil forms by the prefix affinis, and in cases where there has been 

 doubt to which species a particular fossil should be referred, the species 

 which Lund records in a fossil state has been generally adopted. • 



iiltlelp]^^;^ a^araP, Temminck ^ 



Syn. Didelphys awita, Maximilian ^. 

 Didelphys affinis-aurit(^, Lund "*. 

 Didelphys alhiventris, Lund ^. 

 Didelphys affinis-alhiventri, Lund ^. 



It is probable that this form cannot be specifically distinguished 

 from the widely spread D. marsupialis, Linn. {D. cancrivora and 

 D. virginiana). In a recent specimen in the Museum the length 

 of the lower series of cheek-teeth is 0,035, and that of the true 

 molars 0,021. 



Hab. Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, &c. 



18889. The cranium. 



18890. Three portions of mandibular rami. 



iiiMp]^^^ crajgJlicautJata, Desmarest"^. 



Length of lower series of cheek-teeth in a recent specimen 0,024, 

 and of the true molars 0,014; pm. 4 is much lower than pm. 3, and 

 m. 4 longer than m. 3 ; talon of m. 4 bicuspid. 



Eab. Brazil and Paraguay. 



^ Mammalia, vol. i. p. 529. 



^ Monogr. de Mammalogie, toI. i, p. 30 (1827). 



^ Beitrage z. Naturgesch. v. Brasil, vol. ii. p. 395 C1832). 



^ K. Danske Vid. Selsk. Skr. vol. viii. p. 293 (1841). 



« Ibid. p. 236 (1841). 



6 Ibid. p. 293 (1841). 



7 Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. vol. ix. p. 425 (1817). 



