320 



PEOFESSOE OWEN ON THE FOSSIL MAI^IMALS OF AUSTRALIA. 



of the Pterodon or Hycenodon of the Miocene deposits of Auvergne, Gard, and Vaucluse 

 was under discussion, I took the opportunity to point out to M. Gervais certain cha- 

 racters deducible from the ' foramen caroticum ' and ' foramen lacrymale ' bearing on 

 this question, and illustrated my conclusions by reference to the then unique carnivorous 

 fossil which I had a short time before received from Australia. 



The estimable author of the ' Zoologie et Paleontologie Fran9aises,' 4to, 1848-52, 

 enters the genus Thylacoleo in the Table of Fossil Mammalia according to their geogra- 

 phical arrangement*; and in his remarks on those of Australia (Nouvelle-Hollande), he 

 writes, " Ses depots pliocenes ou pleistocenes ont foumi des Grands Kangaroos, un 

 grand Wombat f , diverses autres especes congeneres de celles da present, les genres de 

 Diprotodon et Nototherium qui etaient aussi des Marsupiaux, mais dont les allures et la 

 taille approchaient de celles de nos grands pachydermes diluviens, et le Dasym'ien, plus 

 grand que le Lion, que M. Owen nomme Thylacoleo%" 



I cite this passage in testimony of the date of my determination of the marsupial 

 nature of the great carnivorous Australian fossil, and of the imposition of its generic 

 name ; because the portion of the lower jaw with the carnassial and tubercular teeth of 

 the same extinct species, which was obtained by my friend Mr. Stutchbuey during the 

 period in which he was fulfilling his valuable duties as " Geological Surveyor " of the 

 colony of Australia, is alluded to under the name Schizodon in a Report to the Colonial 

 Secretary, dated "Darling Downs, 1st October, 1853." 



If this generic name had had priority of the one given by me to the same extinct 

 genus, it must have been suppressed, since Schizodon had been previously applied in 

 1829 to a genus of fishes, which still retains it, by Agassiz § ; to a genus of mammals 

 by Mr. Waterhouse, in 1842 ; and, slightly modified as Schizodus, to a genus of mol- 

 lusks by Mr. King. Of course the two latter applications, like that by Mr. Stutch- 

 BURY, must fall into the subordinate rank of synonyms. 



The additional fossil of the Thylacoleo discovered by Mr. Stutchbuey is a very wel- 

 come one. It was not, indeed, sufficient to guide the Colonial geologist to an idea of 

 the order of Mammalia to which it belonged ; and Mr. Stutchbuey concludes his brief 

 notice of the fossil by the remark, " Its affinities had better be left for future discussion, 

 as it is probable that further search may bring to light more remains illustrative of this 

 \ery singular animal ||." 



Such remains had, however, been obtained by Mr. Adeney, and had been transmitted 

 to mo eight years previously ; and the chief conclusion as to the affinities of the animal 

 to wliich they belonged, had been indicated by the term Thylacoleo, i. e. Marsupial or 



* Op. cit. vol. i. p. 190. 



t That, viz., vrhich is alluded to as beiug " at least four times as large as either of the known existing 

 gpeeicB," in my Memoir on the existing Species of Phascolomi/s, of July 1845, Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. iii. 

 p. 306. 



X Op. cit. vol. i. p. 192. § Selecta Genera et Species Piscium Brasiliensium, 4to, 1829. 



II Papers relative to Geological and Mineralogical Surveys, 1853, p. 10. 



