588 



CEXOZOIC ERA— AGE OF MAMMALS. 



Australia. — Fn Australian caves, also, great abundance of remains 

 lias been found, and they show the same prevalence of gigantic spe- 

 cies. As now, so then, the mammals of Australia were almost all Mar- 

 supials, but the present species are 

 dwarfs in comparison. The largest of 

 these w T as the Diprotodon (two front 

 teeth), a pachydermoid kangaroo as big 

 as a rhinoceros. A reduced figure of 

 the skull, which w T as three feet long, is 

 given herewith. 



Among other remarkable species of 

 marsupials were Macropus (kangaroo) 

 Titan and M. Atlas, of great size; Nototherium Mitchelli, as large as 

 a bullock, and a very remarkable species, supposed by Owen to have 

 been carnivorous, and therefore called Tliylacoleo (pouched lion) cam- 



Fig. 960.— Skull of Diprotodon Aus- 

 tralis, x £ s , Post-Pliocene, Australia. 



Fig. 961.— Thylacoleo, Skull reduced (after Flower). 



if ex, as large as a lion. The striking peculiarity of this animal was 

 the existence of a broad trenchant premolar, as shown in Fig. 961. 



Geographical Faunas of Quaternary Times. — We observe, then, that 

 already the geographical distribution of families was similar to that 

 which we find at present. Then, as now, Herbivores greatly predomi- 

 nated in America, while Carnivores were very abundant, and of great 

 size, in the Eastern Continent. Then, as now, sloths and armadillos 

 and llamas characterized the fauna of South America, while Marsupials 

 characterized that of Australia. But in each locality the animal life 

 seems to have been then more abundant, and the species gigantic. 





