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Suborder DIPROTODONTI A . 



Section SALTIGRADA. 

 Family MACROPODID^E. 



Osteology of the existing Species. 



§ 1. Introduction. — The combination of the marsupial economy with herbivorous 

 diet, and of unguiculate fore paws having the requisite extent and variety of movements 

 for the manipulation of the pouch with a power of swift and extensive locomotion for 

 attaining fresh pastures and escaping enemies, results in one of the most singular 

 modifications of the terrestrial mammalian form ; and it is not surprising that a 

 passing glimpse of the first Kangaroo by Banks and his fellow voyagers on their landing 

 at Botany Bay left the impression that they had seen hopping away from them some 

 strange, large, new, wingless bird. In fact, the work of ordinary locomotion on land, 

 in the poephagous Marsupials, is transferred to and concentrated upon the hinder end 

 and members, the fore limbs being reserved, as in birds, for other functions. This 

 involves modifications of the whole frame, and especially of the proportions and struc- 

 ture of the caudal vertebrae and pelvic limbs. 



Pander and D'Alton, in their elegant work on the skeletons of the Mammalia '. have 

 given in the Part devoted to the Marsupialia 2 reduced views of the skeletons of 

 Macropus major, Shaw, and M. (Halmaturus) elegans, F. Cuvier, with full-sized 

 figures of those of Hypsiprymnus murinus, Illig., and of some species of Didelphys. In 

 the same Part the skull and atlas of Macropus major are figured of the natural size, 

 and a somewhat reduced view is given of the carpus and tarsus in that Kangaroo. A 

 front view of the pelvis of a young Kangaroo, in relation to its osteogeny, is given in 

 my article " Marsupialia " 3 ; and the bony palate, with the dentition and part of the 

 base of the skull of Macropus bennettii, is figured, of the natural size, in the first of 

 the series of papers on the Osteology of that order 4 . 



For the purpose of palseontological comparison, however, there is the same need of 

 illustrations of the osteology of one or more of the existing species of Macropodida? as 

 of those of the Phascolomyidae. 



1 In oblong folio, 1821-31. 1 'Die Skelete der Beutelthiere,' Bonn, 1828. 



' Cyclopaedia of Anatomy, vol. iii. (1847) p. 284, fig. 110. 

 4 Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. ii. (1838) p. 406, pi. 71. fig. 5. 



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