GEOLOGY. 



47 



race. Wall-case No. 13, and Table-case No. 15, contain the remains 

 of these large extinct animals belonging to the class Marsupialia — 

 so called because some of them (e.g. the Kangaroos) were furnished 

 with a Marsupium or pouch in which to carry their young after birth 

 until they were able to care for themselves; — represented at the 

 present day by the Kangaroos. 



Fig. 15.— (a.) Skull of gigantic extinct Kangaroo (D protodon Australis), from the Newer 

 Tertiary Deposit?, Australia. 

 (b.) A human skull placed beside it, to show comparative size. 



The largest of this ancient family is called Diprotodon (Owen) ; 

 the skull alone measures three feet in length, being six times 

 as large as the great red kangaroo (Macropus major), its living 

 representative. The fore-limbs were longer and the hind-limbs 

 shorter in proportion than in the living kangaroo, and its skeleton 

 was altogether more robust. 



Other forms have been named by Professor Owen, Sthenuras, 

 Protemnodon, and Nototherivm. 



Of the Wombat family only a small living representative is known, 

 of burrowing habits, found in Tasmania, and on the continent of 

 Australia : the extinct forms varied in size from that of a marmot 

 to that of a tapir. The largest of these are named Phascolomys 

 magnus and P. gigas. 



All these animals were herbivorous, subsisting on grass and roots ; 

 but one form, remarkably modified from the rest, yet nevertheless of 

 the same marsupial class, was a true carnivore (according to Professor 

 Owen), and preyed upon these old giant kangaroos and wombats. It 

 has been named Thylacoleo carnifex. 



All the indigenous animals found in Australia both in the past and 



