i6] 
RECORDS OF W.A. MUSEUM. 
The Cranium. 
In this specimen we note many characters which prove 
conclusively that this Wombat is a member of the platyrhine group 
The skull is long and strong, rivalling in size the larger example of 
P. mitchelli quoted below from the “ Catalogue of Marsupialia and 
Monelvemata in the Collection of the British Museum” (1888). 
The nasals are large and expanded behind, their greatest width 
being about five-eighths of their length, their lateral margins are 
undulate, as in P. nvsinus (and also occasionally, but to a less extent, 
in P. mitchelli), and the hind borders are convex. “ The angular 
process of the malar part of the zygoma, which defines the orbit 
posteriorly,” is well developed, and the maxilliary has that character 
which Prof. Owen holds to be of sufficient importance to distinguish 
P. mitchelli (P. platyrhinus) from P. ursinus (P. wombatus) and which 
he regards as a peculiar feature of the former species ; see ” The 
Extinct Mammals of Australia,” p. 316, fig. 3, and p. 317. 
The infra-orbital foramen is narrow and slit-like. The 
characters afforded by the upper surface of the skull are practically 
those of P. mitchelli, “ the upper third of the temporal fossa is 
formed by a longitudinal strip of the parietal, whilst the slight 
rising developed along the line of the parietal -squamosal suture is 
distinct and can be traced to the posterior surface of the skull. 
The longitudinal strip of the parietal bends down less abruptly 
in this specimen than in the form P. tirsinus (wombatus) as shown in 
the figures in “ The Extinct Mammals of Australia,” and as 
described on p. 305 of that work. The inter-orbital region is 
smooth and evenly convex, the post-orbital processes are rudi- 
mentary and the distance between their tips identical with the 
inter-orbital breadth ; there is a fairly well developed tubercle on 
the lachrimal. 
The extent of the naso-premaxillary suture is twice as long as 
the naso-maxillary one. 
The occipital region and the under surface of the skull could 
not be examined in detail as the very hard and adhesive nature of 
the matrix, and the thin and delicate nature of the bone in these 
parts rendered any attempt at cleaning a matter of such great risk 
that it was thought advisable not to undertake it. The anterior 
palatine foramina are long and narrow, and the posterior palatine 
vacuities ‘‘ triangular, about equal in size to one of the molars.” 
