PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 



I. Additional Evidence of the Affinities of the Extinct Marsupial Quadruped 



Thylacoleo carnifex (Owen), 



By Sir Richaed Owen, K.C.B., F.R.S., &c. 



Received October 5, — Read November 25, 1886. 



[Plate 1.] 



Since the first indication of a large extinct Carnivore by a tooth obtained by Major 

 Sir T. L. Mitchell in the cavern discovered by him in WeHington VaUey, Australia,'^ 

 fossil remains from that and other locahties of the same Continent have been succes- 

 sively transmitted to me, which I have referred to the extinct genus and species 

 Thylacoleo carnifex. Papers descriptive of these fossils have been admitted in the 

 ' Philosophical Transactions,' and their value has been enhanced by the comments they 

 have excited in the works of contemporary palaeontologists, t These eminent authors 

 received the support, in reference to objections to my conclusions, of the (then) 

 Curator of the Australian Museum, Sydney, Mr, Gerard Krefft, who, in his contri- 

 bution to the 'Annals and Magazine of Natural History,' series '.*>, vol. 18, 1866, 

 p. 148, records his opinion that " the famous marsupial Lion was not much more 

 carnivorous than the Phalangers of the present time." 



* 'Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia,' 8vo., 1838, vol. 2, p. .359, plate 32, 

 figs. 10, 11, 



t Falconer, Dr. Hugh, F.R.S. : ' Proceedings of the Geological Society of London ' for March, 1857 ; 

 'Quarterly Journal' of the Society, June, 1862, p. 853; ' Pateontological Memoirs and Notes,' 8vo., 

 1868, vol. 2, p. 437. Professor Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S. : ' Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of 

 London,' vol. 20, 1864, p. 412. Professor W. H. Flower, F.R.S., ' On the Affinities and probable Habits 

 of the extinct Australian Marsupial Thijlacoleo carnifex, Owen ' ; ' Quarterly Journal of the Geological 

 Society of London,' vol. 24, 1868, p. 307. 



MDCCCLXXXVIL — B. B • 23.2.87 



