68 
THE TASMANIAN NATURALIST. 
the shaft, which latter is ‘ under cut/ or bevelled away at a steep angle, 
thus differing materially from Owen’s figure. Lastly, in the humerus 
of N. tasmanicuni the bridge itself is narrow and of almost equal width 
throughout, while that of the type is proximally more massive. 
In these several characters we have the material for the construction 
of a humerus that is intermediate between * Nototherium mitchelli r 
upon the one hand, and an enlarged addition of the modern wombat 
upon the other. 
The only other bone figured by Professor Owen in illustration of 
his type of * Nototherium mitchelli 9 is the Atlas Vertebra, and if this 
bone is compared with that of N. tasmanicuni, it will be found that the 
latter is rather more depressed than the former, in the proportion of 
45 to 57. 
COMl’A KALI V !•: V K KTEIIK/E. 
N. MITCHELLI 
N. TASMAN 1 - 
CUM. 
Width across articular surfaces of neura- 
pophyses 
I I 2 M.M. 
I £3 M.M. 
Depth from neural spine to a line drawn 
across the tuberosities (of the un¬ 
finished bony ring) 
" 3 " 
9 r 
The osteology is otherwise similar in the several foramina, articular 
surfaces, and muscular tracts. 
Sex of the Specimen. 
As these animals are extinct, and their remains rarfc* little or 
nothing is known upon the characters that determine sex, but a hint 
is thrown out in the case of this animal, which, however, must not be 
pushed to an extreme, and is only recorded for what it is worth. 
Near the bones unearthed by Mr. E. C. Lovell, upon the Mowbray 
Swamp, there was found the mutilated shaft of the femur of a young 
Nototherium, both proximally and distally imperfect, and although 
careful search was made nothing else came to light. The thought 
suggests itself, was not the animal a female, with a calf at foot (or 
otherwise) ? Mr. Lovell, in a letter to me, states that the way in which 
the bones were scattered about in the matrix led him to conclude that 
the dead body of the animal had been preyed upon by some car¬ 
nivorous creature. If such were the case the loss of the small bones of the 
larger Nototherium, and those of the calf, might in part be accounted 
for, although water may have removed many to a distance, particularly 
as the site was liable to be flooded I must just add to these brief 
notes that the animal was aged, the crowns of most of the teeth being 
well worn down. At a later date I hope to detail the rest of the 
skeleton, and figure it in outline. 
