viii 



recognize ; , species of Halmaturus of larger size than the Largest living Kangaroo*. 

 The bone of an Elephant mentioned by Mr. Pkntland was the same large bone alluded 

 to by Mr. ('lift. 



" These facts are full of interest ; for they prove that the peculiar type of organization 

 which now characterizes the marsupial tribes has prevailed from a remote period in 

 Australia, and that in that continent, as in Europe, North and South America, and 

 India, many species of mammalia have become extinct. It also appears, although the 

 evidence is less complete than we could have wished, that land quadrupeds far exceeding 

 in magnitude the wild species now inhabiting New Holland, have at some former 

 period existed in that country"*}*. 



\\ hile, however, such large land quadrupeds were supposed to be of Hippopotamus 

 or of Elephant) the extinct mammalian fauna of Australia could not be pronounced to 

 be distinct from the existing one of Asia and of Africa. 



Even after the determination in 1836, under the generic name Diprotodon, of parts 

 of a large Mammal with the single pair of lower procumbent incisors so common in 

 Australian Marsupials, the remains of larger and older individuals subsequently trans- 

 mitted, which I erroneously referred to a Dinotherium%, still opposed a barrier to the 

 absolute enunciation of unexceptional correspondence between the extinct and existing 

 mammalian fauna of Australia. True it is, I was speedily enabled to correct my 

 error §, and to show that the supposed Dinotherian remains were really those of an 

 adult individual of the same Marsupial genus and species as the immature fragment of 

 lower jaw on which the Diprotodon australis was founded. 



Thus was fulfilled the wish of our eminent geologist ; and it was shown that not 

 only were the smaller "wild species now inhabiting New Holland represented by 

 remains of those existing at some former period in that country," but that " the land 

 quadrupeds, far exceeding them in magnitude," were likewise marsupial, and quite 

 distinct from the Elephants, Hippopotamuses, and other large beasts, recent or fossil, 

 of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. 



To what cause, it may be asked, is due the extinction in Australia of the genera 

 Diprotodon, Nototherium, Thylacoleo, Phascolonus, Thylacinus, Sarcophilus, Palor- 

 chestes, Procoptodon, Pachysiayon, Protemnodon, Sthenurus, with the larger species of 

 existing genera of Kangaroos and Wombats'? No other adequate cause suggests itself 

 to my mind save the hostile agency of man. Thy J acinus and Sarcophilus are still 

 represented by smaller species in Tasmania ; but they will there soon be things of 

 the past. 



The common characteristic of all the species of the extinct genera, as compared with 

 those that represent existing genera, is superiority of size, and this in degrees ranging 

 from Protemnodon Anak to Diprotodon australis. The same may be said of several of 

 the extinct species of existing genera. 



* " Journ. do Geologie, torn. iii. p. 291." f Principles of Geology, vol. iii. 8vo, 1833, p. 143. 



z Annab and Magazine of Natural History, Hay 1843. § Op. cit. October 1844. 



