■ 
CHAPTER VIII. 
VARIOUS EXTINCT ANIMALS; — AND ON THE ANTIQUITY OF THE 
GENERA OF INSECTS AND LAND MOLLUSCA. 
EXTINCT MAMMALIA OF AUSTRALIA. 
These have all been obtained from caves and late Tertiary or 
Post-Tertiary deposits, and consist of a large number of extinct 
forms, some of gigantic size, but all marsupials and allied to the 
existing fauna. There are numerous forms of kangaroos, some 
larger than any living species ; and among these are two genera, 
Protemnodon and Sthenurus, which Professor Garrod has lately 
shown to have been allied, not to any Australian forms, but to 
the Dendrolagi or tree-kangaroos of New Guinea. We have 
also remains of Thylacinus and Dasyums , which now only exist 
in Tasmania ; and extinct species of Hypsiprymnus and Phasco- 
lomys , the latter as large as a tapir. Among the more remarkable 
extinct genera are Diprotodon, a huge thick-limbed animal 
allied to the kangaroos, but nearly as large as an elephant; 
Nototherium, having characters of Macropus and Phascolarctos 
combined, and as large as a rhinoceros ; and Thylacoleo , a pha- 
langer-like marsupial nearly as large as a lion, and supposed by 
Professor Owen to have been of carnivorous habits, though this 
opinion is not held by other naturalists. 
Here then we find the same phenomena as in the other coun- 
tries we have already discussed,— the very recent disappearance 
of a large number of peculiar forms, many of them far surpassing 
in size any that continue to exist. It hardly seems probable 
that in this case their disappearance can have been due to the 
direct effects of the Glacial epoch, since no very extensive glacia- 
