PROFESSOR OWEN ON THE FOSSIL MAMMALS OF AUSTRALIA. 
43 
of works and monographs which gave great stimulus to the progress of philosophic 
zoology, published a notice of this remarkable fossil, naming it Zygomaturus trilobus , in 
a “Report on Donations to the Australian Museum during August 1857,” which 
appeared in a Sydney newspaper of that date. 
Photographs of the skull, made by the direction of the then Governor of Australia, 
Sir William Denison, K.C.B., were transmitted to Sir Roderick; I. Murchison, Bart., 
P.G.S., for presentation to the Geological Society of London. These photographs were 
placed in my hands, with the request to report upon them* . I had some time previously 
received from my friend George Bennett, Esq., F.L.S., of Sydney, outline drawings of 
the same skull, from which materials I recognized it to belong to the genus Nototherium, 
and in all probability to the larger species, N. Mitclielli, of which the lower jaw, from 
the same formation and locality, had been previously received and added to the British 
Museum. I had written, on receipt of the ‘ Sydney Morning Herald ’ containing Mr. 
Macleay’s Report and Notice of his Zygomaturus , to the author, suggesting the proba- 
bility that his subject might prove to belong to the Nototherium , and expressing the 
wish for the opportunity of making the requisite comparisons by means of a cast of the 
skull ; and I received a friendly and favourable reply in a letter dated 9th March 1858, in 
which Mr. W. S. Macleay writes : — “ Every month a list of donations received is published 
in our local newspapers, and it is true that in one of such monthly lists I lately wrote 
on this ‘ Zygomaturus ’ a few words which you appear to have seen. They are, however, 
principally intended to please the donor, and to induce him to send us more specimens. 
The name, from the ‘ tail ’ or process of the zygoma, was given on the principle we 
adopted of cataloguing every thing, were it only for the purposes of correspondence 
and exchange.”- — “ You ask for a cast of the skull of the Zygomaturus , and I am glad 
to think that, long ere you receive this letter, you will have had in your hands a cast 
that Mr. Want, a Trustee of our Museum, took home for the British Museum.” 
The characters afforded by this cast and by the outlines and photographs of the ori- 
ginal specimen dispelled all doubt, in my mind, as to the skull and upper jaw and teeth 
belonging to the same species as the lower jaw of Nototherium Mitclielli , also discovered 
in the bed of King’s Creek, Darling Downs. 
But there were many points in relation to sutures and foramina which could only be 
determined by inspection of the original specimen. It could scarcely be expected, how- 
ever, that a donation of such unique rarity would be despatched for that purpose from 
the Antipodes. But the Trustees of the Australian Museum have kindly directed pho- 
tographs, on a larger scale than those originally sent by Governor Denison, to be pre- 
pared and transmitted to me ; and they have also liberally caused casts to be made of the 
principal specimens of bones and teeth of Nototherium subsequently acquired for the 
Australian Museum, which casts, with photographs of the originals, have likewise safely 
come to hand. 
These and other evidences of the present genus, received at different times from various 
* Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. xv. 1859, p. 168. 
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