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EXTINCT MONSTERS 
Since the year 1893 numerous complete skeletons have been 
found. However, very great difficulties have to be overcome in 
digging out these very fragile (and crushed) bones, and trans- 
porting them on the backs of camels ; so that even now some 
parts of the skeleton are more or less unknown. As the result of 
years of labour, a “ restoration of the skeleton has been set up in 
the South Australian Museum, of which a plaster copy was pre- 
sented to the Cambridge Museum of Zoology. The authorities 
of the former Museum have also been good enough to present to 
the Natural History Museum a set of actual limb-bones, and 
vertebrae of the tail, together with enough plaster casts to make 
the highly interesting restoration shown in Plate LV. In this 
specimen the head and the vertebrae from the neck to the sacral 
region {i.e. to where the hind limbs are situated) are exact copies 
of the Adelaide reconstruction. The skull, unfortunately, is not 
to be relied upon, being only a reconstructed model based on 
specimens from Lake Callabonna, which are all sadly crushed. 
Hence we are still in ignorance of the precise shape of the skull. 
A recent examination of the specimen from Queensland described 
by Owen shows that nearly all the brain- case is wanting, and that 
the skull was four or five inches shorter than Owen supposed. 
The two scapulae, or shoulder blades, in the London model, are 
casts from two actual specimens from Queensland ; and the feet 
are also casts from actual specimens. Possibly before long the 
whole model may be reconstructed. Meanwhile, palaeontologists 
will await with a lively interest, the publication of a promised 
memoir by Dr. Stirling and Dr. Zietz. Mr. Dollo has suggested 
that possibly the ancestors of Diprotodon were arboreal creatures, 
a conclusion based on the evidence of the feet. 
In conclusion, it only remains to express a hope that the reader 
may have been interested in our humble endeavours to describe 
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