PALAEONTOLOGICAL NOTES. 
247 
PAL/EONTOLOGICAL NOTES. 
By Heber A. Longman, F.L.S., C.M.Z.S. (Director). 
(Plate XXIX.) 
SPECIMENS FROM A WELL AT BRIGALOW, 
In March, 1929, an interesting collection of fossil fragments was received 
from Brigalow, Darling Downs, Queensland, through the kindness of Messrs. Zeller 
Brothers. The specimens were obtained during the sinking of a well on their property 
at Brigalow. Several beds of sand were found from “16 feet down to 100 feet,” and 
each bed yielded fossil bones. 
The fragments from this well represent at least seven different vertebrates. 
Perhaps the most significant of these are fragments making about half of a cranium 
of the extraordinary marsupial for which the writer erected the genus Euryzygoma 
in 1921 A The fossils sent by Messrs. Zeller Brothers may be recorded as follows : — 
Euryzygoma dunense. 
Compared with the original Brigalow cranium previously described (Joe. cit.), 
this is a far younger animal. Although the zygomatic arches are distorted and 
incomplete, the distinctive features of the genus are well marked. In this marsupial 
the inferior lateral processes of the anterior part of the zygomata reach a development 
which is without a parallel among other mammals, and this is accompanied by a 
distinctive structure of the zygomatic processes of the maxilke. The architecture 
of these accessory processes was described in detail in the original paper, and in this 
region the differences between Euryzygoma and the species of Nototherium are 
obvious at a glance when direct comparison is made. 
In view of these and other distinctive features that were set forth in the 
detailed description of the first Brigalow skull, it is somewhat surprising that a writer 
in “ Nature” (May 19th, 1921, p. 372) should question the generic separation of this 
marsupial from Nototherium mitcMIK and N . tasmanicum. Obviously Euryzygoma 
is an extremely specialised member of the Nototherium group and is an example of the 
evolution of a bizarre type. Probably the remarkable development of the zygomatic 
processes reached its maximum in adult males, but the total material received shows 
that these special features were present in younger forms. On these structures alone 
generic status would be justified. A specimen consisting of a right maxilla with, 
three molars, found at Ehlma Siding, near Brigalow, and forwarded by Mr. Thomas 
Jack in October, 1923, also exhibits the distinctive features of Euryzygoma. This 
specimen (F. 1520), which is higlily polished, was found “ in quick-sand.” 
A comparison may appropriately be made between the extreme lateral develop- 
ment of the arches in Euryzygoma with the dependent processes in certain Entelodonts 
described by E. L. Troxell, 1 2 of which Megachcerus zygomaticus is a remarkable 
example. 
1 1921, Longman, Mem. Qld. Mus., vol. vii, pp. 65-80, 
2 1920, E. L. Troxell, Amer. Journ. Sci., vol. 1, p. 433. 
