PROFESSOK OWEN ON THE FOSSIL MAMMALS OP AUSTRALIA . 



321 



Pouched Lion *, which conclusion was based on the characters and comparisons of those 

 fossil remains detailed in the foregoing pages. 



A desire to exhaust every needful and available subject of comparison has occasioned 

 the long delay in commimicating descriptions of the present selection of fossil remains 

 of Australian Mammals. 



The concurrence in them of so many cranial characters found only in the Marsu- 

 pialia, will be deemed, I apprehend, demonstrative of the marsupial nature of the 

 Thylacoleo ; and, amongst existing Marsupialia, the Sarcophilus or Dasyurus ursinus — 

 at present the largest existing species of its genus — seems to me to have the nearest 

 affinities to the Thylacoleo, although the interval be still very great between them. 



Description of the Plates. 

 PLATE XI. 



Fig. 1. Side view of the cranium and part of the upper jaw of the Thylacoleo carnifex : 

 — nat. size. 



Fig. 2. Inside view of part of the upper jaw, showing both the sectorial and tubercular 

 molars of ditto. 



Fig. 3. Outside \iew of part of the lower jaw of the Thylacoleo carnifex. 



Fig. 4. Inside view of part of the left lower carnassial tooth of the Thylacoleo carnifex. 



Fig. 5. Outside view of the same specimen. 



Fig. 6. Upper view of the same specimen. 



PLATE XII. 



Fig. 1. Side view of the skull of the ¥elis S'peloea (from European Bone-cave): — half 

 nat. size. 



Fig. 1 a. Outline of the sutures between the nasals, is, and frontal, u, and between the 

 superior maxillary, aa, and the frontal, n, shoAving the backward extension of 

 the.maxillaries, which distinguishes the Lion from the Tiger: — nat. size. 



Fig. 2. Outline of the skull of the Thylacinus Harrisii : — nat. size. 



PLATE XIII. 



Fig. I . Upper view of the cranium of the Thylacoleo carnifex : — two-thirds nat. size. 

 Fig. 2. Upper view of the cranium of the Dasyurus (Sarcophilus) ursinus : — nat. size. 

 Fig. 3. Upper view of the cranium of the Thylacinus Harrisii: — nat. size. 

 Fig. 4. Inside view of part of the lower jaw of the Thylacoleo carnifex : — nat. size. 

 Fig. 5. Upper view of the same fossil. 



Fig. 6. Side view of a metacarpal of a carnivorous quadruped ; from Australian pleisto- 

 cene. 



Fig. 7. Proximal end of the same. 

 Fig. 8. Distal end of the same. 



* From OvXuKos, marsupium ; \iior, leo. 



