PROFESSOR OWEN ON THE MEGATHERIUM. 
733 
The vertebral characters of the Tenrees {Centetes) resemble in these respects those 
of the Hedgehogs. 
In the Moles {Talpidoe) short anapophyses are developed from some of the anterior 
lumbar vertebrae. 
In the Shrews [Soricidce) they are somewhat better marked ; the anapophyses 
are continued from the penultimate dorsal to the third lumbar vertebrae in the great 
Indian species {Sorex myosurus) ; whilst in the Cladobates ferrugineus they under- 
lap the metapophyses of the succeeding vertebra in the last dorsals and in all, save 
the last lumbar vertebrae. The diapophyses in both Talpidoe and Soricidce resemble 
those in the Erinaceidce. 
Order Marsupialia. 
In the Thylacine {Thylacinus Harrisii), with d 13, /6, the anapophysis appears 
first upon the ninth dorsal, as a pointed process projecting from the back of 
the diapophysis ; it increases in size and ascends in position on the tenth ; is large, 
obtuse, and underlaps the metapophysis of the succeeding vertebra in the last two 
dorsals; progressively diminishes in the lumbar vertebrae, and disappears on the 
fourth of that series. The metapophysis is developed abruptly on the tenth dorsal 
external to the prozygapophysis, increases in size in the following dorsals, dimi- 
nishes in the lumbar vertebrae, but is present throughout the series as a strong 
obtuse process : it is continued, also, through a great part of the caudal series, in 
which the zygapophyses become obsolete at the eighth vertebra. 
In the Ursine Dasyure {Dasyurus ursinus), with 13, / 6, both anapophyses and 
metapophyses commence at the eleventh dorsal: the anapophyses increase to the 
second lumbar, diminish in the two following, and disappear in the fifth. They un- 
derlap the metapophyses of the first three lumbar vertebrae. The metapophyses are 
continued throughout the sacral and a great part of the caudal region, in which the 
zygapophyses cease to be developed at the eighth vertebra. 
The diapophyses are not obliterated in the last dorsal vertebrae, which renders 
their serial homology distinctly traceable along the lumbar region. 
In the Wombat [Phascolomys vomhatm), with d\b, / 4, the metapophysis {m) rises 
suddenly from the outside of the prozygapophysis (z) of the twelfth dorsal (Plate 
XLVII. fig. 12, D 12) ; increases in length to the second lumbar (L2), diminishes by 
degrees to the second sacral ; and is rudimental in the following sacral and caudal 
vertebrae. A rudiment of the anapophysis (a) is first discernible on the eleventh 
dorsal: the process gradually increases to the last dorsal (ao 15), diminishes in the 
lumbar, and disappears in the last of that series. In the skeleton showing the above 
modifications, the sutures between the short straight pleurapophysis (pi) and diapo- 
physis (d) of the first lumbar vertebra (l 1) still in a great degree remain ; the anchy- 
losis is only partial ; and the proportion of the autogenous and exogenous elements 
5 B 
MDCCCLI. 
