ON DIPROTODON MINOR— Hux. 



By C. W. De ViR, M.A. 



It is now a quarter of a century since Professor Huxley, in the 

 Annals and Magazine of Natural History (Vol. 18, pp. 422-427), 

 gave descriptions and figures of maxillary teeth of two extinct 

 mammals, regarded by him as Diprotodons — one under the name of 

 D. (australis ?), the other under that of D. minor. Both of these 

 were, in 18S7, identified by Sir R. Owen with ascertained species 

 of his genus Nototherium ; D. (australis ?), was refigured as N. mit- 

 cholli, D. minor as N. victoria:. These determinations of the 

 learned author of the " Extinct Mammals of Australia" have not 

 hitherto been disturbed. Indeed, after the recognition by the same 

 authority of the mandible with a strictly bilophodont premolar figured 

 in liis work as D, australis, it became almost impossible to believe 

 that if the tooth so identified had no successor, the maxilla? noticed 

 by Professor Huxley could have belonged to Diprotodon. But 

 certain Diprotodon remains collected by Mr. R. Frost, of 

 King's Creek, and lately transferred to the Queensland Museum, 

 seem to necessitate a reconsideration of the matter, inasmuch as they 

 revenl not only the premolar typical of the genus (that of D. 

 australis), but the fact that a smaller contemporary of D. australis 

 had a real existence as a species. 



In Mr. Frost's collection is a skull of a large Diprotodon 

 which, in the absence of any contra-indication, may be assumed to 

 be that of D. australis. The greater part of the superstructure of 

 this skull is wanting, but its more solid base and sides, though 

 broken up into fragments in the matrix have been recovered and 

 reconstructed. Fortunately all the teeth, save the posterior incisors, 

 are in pl*ce, and well preserved, though we recognise in the state 

 of the grinders — the second being reduced to a mere shell — the 

 conditions of advanced age. 



The premolar, rather more than half worn down, is a subtri- 

 angulnr anilobate tooth, 23 mm. in length. 20 mm. in breadth, with 



