PERIOD IN QUEENSLAND, BY C. W. DE VIS. 



Ill 



On the ental aspect the fossil is remarkable for the depth of 

 ihe depression between the meso-and post-scapular to accom- 

 modate doubtless a correspondingly voluminous subscapulars or 

 posterior division thereof. In most recent Phalangers this region 

 of the scapula is, if at all, but slightly concave, but in P. archeri it 

 ■constantly presents a deeper concavity. The meso-scapula on this 

 side is in the fossil inordinately concave. On the ectal aspect there 

 is little to excite attention, save an unusual flatness of the region 

 around the insertion of the spine, contrasting with the concavity on 

 •either side of it produced by the elevation of the margins in most 

 Phalangers — the fossil in this instance resembles Cuscus ssp. and 

 Thalangista vulpina rather than P. archeri. 



On the whole, the Cuscus-like Phalanger placed in Phalangista 

 as P. archeri* is evidently the species most retentive of characters 

 impressed on the group by this one of its precursors. The Toolah 

 P. archeri, is restricted in its habitat to the warm and rainy scrubs 

 of the north-east coast. It is therefore almost necessary to infer 

 that Archizonuru3 became extinct through the gradual disappear- 

 ance of similar conditions in higher latitudes. 



The greatest breadth of the glenoid fossa in the fossil is six- 

 fold that of P. archeri, its length has nearly the same proportion. 

 P. archeri is 310 m.m. in length, sine cauda, and weighs about four 

 pounds. Archizonurus may therefore be estimated to have been 

 about six feet in length and 850 lbs. in weight. 



Cuscus procuscus. — 



The arthral end of a scapula to which this cabinet name has 

 been given, brings us into nearer contemplation of the recent genus 

 Cuscus than was permitted to us by Archizonurus. Size and 

 geological remove are, indeed, the only considerations inimical to its 

 appropriation to that genus, and — though the writer is disposed to 

 give to them overbalancing weight in any case of doubt — without 



* The affinity of the Toolah with Cuscus is seen not only in the quality 

 of its fur, but in the sculpture oi its molar surfaces — it is in fact a subgenus 

 of Cuscus. 



