LIFE HABITS AND DENTITION 



73 



The mandible as in all purely carnivorous animals retains the 

 condyle on the level of the molar teeth. The coronoid is elon- 

 gated and in consequence becomes less broad. The jaws are 

 greatly foreshortened, packing all the teeth closely together 

 and reducing the antero-posterior extent of the incisor portion. 

 The shortening of the jaws is associated with the elimination 

 of the last premolar, a process already foreshadowed by its re- 

 duction in size in Phascologale. Such shortening is not neces- 

 sarily characteristic of a carnivorous dentition ; it occurs only 



Fig. 19. — Dentition of Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus ursinus, 9.211-5). An example 

 of the short-jawed Carnivore with reduction of the premolar series. Compare the 

 obliquity of the upper molar shear with that in Fig. 17. 



in certain genera. The milk molar preceding the third pre- 

 molar in most Marsupials, like its successor, does not occur in 

 Sarcophilus. 



Turning attention to the incisors, it is observed that these are 

 small and more or less identical with each other except the 

 upper median teeth which as in Phascologale retain the sepa- 

 rated bases and approximated tips.* The incisor rows however 



*This feature is better marked in some specimens than in others. It is not very 

 clearly exhibited in the skull figured. 



