4 
AUSTRALASIAN FOSSILS. 
These are Exhibited in the East Gallery. 
The Wall-case of this Gallery contains a remarkably fine 
selection of the larger Australasian fossils ; comprising 
specimens, shells, bones, and groups of fossils in their matrix. 
In Australia and New Zealand many kinds of fossilized 
remains are found to be similar to those occurring in other 
parts of the world ; some, however, are peculiar to this region 
and are consequently of especial interest. 
Such are the extinct Marsupials, as Diprotodon ( = “ two 
front teeth,” in reference to the upper incisors). This was a 
gigantic animal of the Pleistocene period, as large as a Rhino- 
ceros and rather taller. The Diprotodon lived amongst the 
Fig. 2. Diprotodon australis Owen. 
Restoration of the giant marsupial. 
After C. H. Angas and F. Chapman. 
herbage and low forests, especially of the southern and eastern 
parts of Australia, which were well watered at that time, 
but became extinct in recent times owing in all probability 
to the diversion of rivers, now more or less dried up, which 
