PROFESSOR OWEN ON THE FOSSIL MAMMALS OF AUSTRALIA. 
521 
The head of the same skeleton was sent some years ago to Sydney. The shepherd who 
discovered the head is here still, and it was he who showed me the place. When I can 
get time and men in that direction I will dig it out and then forward it by degrees to you.’ 
“ Since I received this account,” proceeds Dr. Bennett, “ I have seen Mr. W. B. Tooth, 
the owner of the station, and he informed me that he has a large blade-bone, and that 
when he visits the station and has the men at leisure, he will gradually dig out the 
skeleton as perfect as possible and forward it to me. Mr. T. left on the 15th of this 
month for the station. I suggested to him to preserve every bone however small, which 
he has promised to do. On my receiving only a few at a time I will immediately transmit 
them to you, as I expect it will take some time to excavate the whole skeleton, as men 
cannot be spared at all times from a large sheep station.” 
I have long (perhaps too long) deferred entering upon the work of the present com 
m unication, hoping to complete the materials for the entire reconstruction of the Dipro- 
todon. But the quick lapse of time, its inevitable effect on mind and body, and the 
venial impatience of the possessors of nondescript bones of the great Marsupial, combine 
to put an end to delay, and I proceed, therefore, to the description of the parts of this 
extinct animal at present at my command. 
§ 2. Skull . — It is probable that the specimen in the British Museum (Plate XXXV. 
figs. 1, 2, 3), purchased at the sale of a series of Australian Fossils sent to London from 
Sydney by a Mr. Boyd, and stated to have been obtained from the bed of a creek at 
Gowrie, near Drayton, Darling Downs, Queensland*, may be the “ head ” referred to in 
the letter above cited. 
The chief dimensions of this skull are given in the ‘Table of Admeasurements’ of parts 
of the skeleton of Diprotodon , p. 573. 
The skull shows the general marsupial character of that part in its degree of depres- 
sion or flattening from above downward, in the small proportion devoted to receive the 
brain, and in the large proportion given to the olfactory chamber and precranial air- 
sinuses. 
The occipital region (Plate XXXV. fig. 1, s, fig. 3), instead of being vertical, as in 
Macropus (ib. fig. 5) and most existing Marsupials, slopes forward from the terminal con- 
dyles at an angle of 45° with the basicranial axis. 
The basioccipital (ib. fig. 3, i) forms by a thick border convex vertically, slightly 
concave transversely, the lower part of the rim of the foramen magnum (ib. o) an inch 
in extent, separating in the same degree the lower ends of the occipital condyles (ib. 2, 2 ). 
These ends may be contributed by the basioccipital element, but the sutures between it 
and the exoccipitals are obliterated. 
* “ All the above fossil remains are from King’s Creek, Darling Downs, being the same locality whence the 
entire skull of the Diprotodon was obtained some years ago.” — W. S. Macleay, in ‘ Report on Donations to 
the Australian Museum during August, 1857.’ See also “ Owen, On Nototherium ,” in Proceedings of the Geo- 
logical Society of London, March 1858, p. 158. 
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