RECORDS OF IV. A. MUSEUM. 
[43. 
that, like the permanent cheek teeth, it consists of two 
lobes separated by a mid-valley. From the state of wear of the 
crown, this great authority considered that the upper premolar 
also had two parallel lobes. The following tooth (D4 of Owen) 
has a somewhat similar shape, but is of greater size. 
Prof. Owen was so thoroughly convinced of the accuracy of 
his determinations and conclusions that he never agreed with the 
views expressed by Prof. Huxleyh As late as 1877 he states* *: 
“ The Diprotodon minor of Huxley is founded on the teeth of the 
species of Nototherium." It will be seen he did not fall in with the 
suggestion that there had been a second, smaller species of 
Diprotodon coeval with the larger D. australis, but stated most 
positively that the specimens to which Prof. Huxley referred were 
really species of Nototherium (N . niitchelli and N. victoria). 
At a later date De Vis, when attempting to identify and name 
the large number of Pleistocene marsupial remains in the Queens- 
land Museum, was able to extend our knowledge of the identity of 
these preniolars. In 1888 he sent a contribution to the Royal 
Society of Queensland “On Diprotodon minor (Huxley)*,” in which 
he summarises his conclusions in the following terms'*: “The 
premolars figured by Prof. Huxley are unmistakably teeth of 
Diprotodon. The distinctnes.s of the animal they represent from 
D. australis, affirmed with some reserve by Prof. Huxley, and 
practically without reserve by Sir R. Owen, is confirmed by fresh 
evidence. The differences between the three premolars made 
known are reconcilable, the difficulty raised by them les.s than that 
of admitiing three allied species in the same habitat. They 
represent one form, D. minor, which is a species, and not the female 
of D. australis. The genus therefore contains two Queensland 
species, D. australis (Owen) and D. minor (Huxley) 
The plate which illustrates the conclusion of De Vis shows the 
upper premolars of D. australis and of D. minor— this latter including 
the D. australis (?) of Prof. Huxley’s contribution of 1862. The 
Quart. Journal Geol. Soc., XVIII., p 422, et seq., 1862. 
^ Loc. cit,, p. 511. 
“ Proc. Royal Soc. Queensland, Vol. V 1888 ; p. 38, 1889. 
* Loc. cit,, p. 44. 
