PROFESSOR OWEN ON THE FOSSIL MAMMALS OF AUSTRALIA. 
229 
been killed, and then more or less devoured by the nocturnal murine omnivorous Rodent, 
thus demonstrated to have acted in this carnivorous fashion by virtue of the pair ol 
scalpriform incisors “ arranged collaterally in the axis,” &c. 
But there are several genera and species of Cuvier’s “ Carnassiers ” in which incisors 
having the size, form, and office of laniaries* are not “ held well apart through the inter- 
position of a line of ‘ other ’ incisors ”f. 
The European Otter ( Lutra ) shows, indeed, this divaricate arrangement, but an African 
Otter ( Potamogale , Cut, fig. 1) does not ; a co-adapted pair of 
laniaries (i i) at the fore part of the upper jaw were opposed to a 
slightly separated pair in the under jaw (i 2 ). 
In the Insectivora , as in the Marsujnalia, there are two types of 
the teeth which are developed and shaped “ to pierce, retain, and 
kill,” in other words, two local conditions of “ laniaries.” In some, 
Gymnura §, Centetes ||, e. g., the laniaries answer to the ‘canines’ of 
Carnivora , and are separated by interposed ‘incisors’ in both 
upper and lower jaws, as they are in Sarcophilus and Thylacinus ; 
in other Insectivora the laniaries are approximated, and are formed 
by ‘incisors’; as, e.g. in Solenodon 9 ^ , Erinaceus**, Scalops, Uro- 
trichus, and other Soricidce generally, in which a juxtaposed pair 
at the fore part of the mandible ff oppose a corresponding pair vie . w > Potamogale velox ■. 
1 . . twice nat. sizej. 
at the fore part of the upper jaw. These incisors usurp the 
functions of the canines in Gymnura, Talpa , &c. The transference of the laniary form 
and function from the canines to the incisors, the development of these latter into the 
dental instruments “ modified to pierce, retain, and kill,” is the rule, or is found in the 
majority of Insectivora. In the Japanese Mole-shrew ( Urotriclms talpoides)%% “the 
incisor is long, conical, and pointed it is grooved on the inner side : “ the lower canine 
is small, its office being transferred to the incisor ”§§. This large laniary tooth may be 
* “ Technical canines vary as much in shape, proportion, and function as do technical ‘incisors; ’ are some- 
times, indeed, implanted by two roots instead of one.” See ‘ Odontography,’ pi. 110. fig. 3 (Mole). 
t X. p. 352 ; XI. p. 435. 
t For the subject of this Cut I am indebted to the author of the instructive Memoir on Potamogale, Zool. 
Trans, vol. vi. p. 1, Professor Allman, F.R.S., of the University of Edinburgh, where the unique skeleton of 
the Potamogale is preserved. 
§ Owen’s ‘ Odontography,’ pi. 111. fig. 4, a, b. 
II Ih. pi. 110. fig. 6. 
IF ‘Odontography,’ pi. 111. fig. 1 (the front view (b) may be compared with that of Thylacoleo in XII. 
p. 312, fig. 2). 
** lb. pi. 110. fig. 5. 
ft Sorex . — “ In the lower jaw there is, as is known, one very elongated pointed incisor on each side.” “ The 
canine is a small conical tooth, the smallest of the lower jaw.” — M ivakt, “ On the Osteology of Insectivora,” 
Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, vol. ii. p. 11. 
Catalogue of Bones in the British Museum, 8vo, p. 109. 
§§ Mivart, ut supra. » 
MDCCCLXXI. 2 I 
Fig. 1. 
Laniary incisors, front 
