176 



PEOFESSOE OAYEN" ON THE FOSSIL MAMMALS OF AUSTEALIA. 



maxillary (15-22) sutures. In not any of the three specimens before me is " the width of 

 the nasals continued forward beyond their middles" *. In one variety the course of the 

 naso-premaxillary suture was such as is shown by the dotted line a a in figure 3. A 

 broader strip of the maxillary (21) divides the malar (26) from the premaxillary (22) in the 

 present species than in Phascolomys vombatus. This is a good and constant character 

 in a comparison of the two species. 



^ 4. Nasal bones in Phascolomys latifrons, Ow. — The breadth of the fore part of the 

 frontals in the Latifront or Hairy-nosed Wombat is made to contrast with the narrowness 

 of the rest of the bones by the outward extension of the postorbital processes f; the 

 nasals (fig. 4, 15) present a more regular triangular form, through the prevailing trans- 

 verse course of the fronto-nasal suture (n-u) and the more regular convergence of the 

 lateral margins of the nasals to the fore ends of the naso-premaxillary sutures (15-22). 

 Beyond these the lateral margins of the nasals converge more rapidly to their apices (is-), 

 which extend freely further forward than in the two preceding species. The breadth of 

 the nasals at the base of their free extremities is greater than in the bare-nosed Wom- 

 bats, and the upper surface of the entire bones is flatter. 



In one of the two skulls before me of Phascolomys latifrons the left frontal breaks 

 the transverse course of the fronto-nasal suture by a sharp-pointed process or wedge 

 between the two nasals (indicated by the upper line in fig. 4) ; in the second skull 



Fig. 4. 



Nasal bones and their connexions, Phascolomys latifrons, Ow. 

 the right frontal sends forward in the same way a more obtuse triangular process ; in 

 my type skull (Zool. Trans, vol. iii. pi. xxxvii. fig. 4) both frontals contribute equal 

 shares to the wedge, whicli is longer (as shown by the lower dotted lines, a, a, in fig. 4). 



• MuHiE, loc. cit. p. 80;j. 



t I'liite xxxvii. fig. 4, 0, 0, Zool. Truns. vol. iii. (1845) (nal. size); also Mvitii;, rrocccdiiigs of the Zool. 

 Soc. 1805, p. ,S44, fig. 1 (half iiat. size). 



