PROFESSOR OWEN ON THE FOSSIL MAMMALS OF AUSTRALIA. 
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of the whole lateral margin of the bone. The basal breadth bears almost the same 
proportion to the length of the nasals as in the first cited skull. 
§ 3. Nasal bones in Phascolomys platyrhinus, Ow. — The Platyrhine Wombat, in the 
absence of postorbital processes, the shortness of the naso-m axillary suture, and the 
deep emargination of the fore part of the nasal process of the premaxillary, is more 
nearly allied to Phase, vombatus than either of these species are to Phase, latifrons * ; but 
the nasal bones (fig. 3, is) are relatively broader in the Platyrhine than the Tasmanian 
Fig. 3. 
Nasal bones and their connexions, Phascolomys platyrhinus, Ow. 
Wombat, the outer basal angles approaching as near to the lacrymal tubercles (ib. 73 ) 
with a greater relative breadth of the skull at that part. In one skull the lateral 
borders of the nasals have the same undulatory course, but more feebly marked than in 
the second variety of Phase, vombatus (fig. 1). In a second the suture between the 
nasals ( !5 ) and premaxillaries ( 22 ) runs as in fig. 3. There is a narrow and irregular 
intrusion of the frontal at the middle of the fronto-nasal suture, sometimes at the 
expense of the right (as in fig. 3), sometimes of the left nasal bone. The breadth of 
the base of both bones equals five sevenths of the length of the nasals in two specimens, 
and four fifths in a third. The apices (15'), projecting anterior to the naso-premaxillary 
suture ( 22 '), are blunter than in the first variety of Phascolomys vombatus. The width 
or breadth of the nasals, at their base or fronto-nasal suture, begins to diminish at once, 
as they advance, by the converging course of the naso-maxillary (15-21) and naso-pre- 
* This relation is pointed out by Dr. Mtjkie, who remarks : — “ Phascolomys latifrons shears off from the 
common form of A ombat and reverts to the true marsupial type in several particulars ” (Joe. cit. p. 800). These, 
however, he does not cite ; and I may have to note some points in which it seems rather to diverge from the 
common character. 
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