346 
Fossil Bones 
“ ‘ On gigantic extinct Mammalia in Australia/ by Professor 
Owen. —The author observes that the first information respecting 
the extinct Fauna of Australia was derived from Major Mitchell’s 
researches in the ossiferous caves of Wellington Valley. All the 
remains there discovered, with one exception, indicated the exist¬ 
ence of only marsupial animals, of extinct species, differing 
chiefly in being larger than any now living. The specimen, 
which thus differed from the rest, was the fragment of a lower 
jaw, with molar teetli and the socket of a single incisor; it most 
nearly resembled the wombat, and had been named the Diproto- 
don by Mr. Owen. Since that period (1835) Sir Thomas Mit¬ 
chell, Count Strelitzky, and other gentlemen, have obtained col¬ 
lections of bones from caves on the Darling Downs, west of 
More ton Bay, and other localities at a distance from Wellington 
Valley. From an examination of these, Mr. Owen has deter¬ 
mined the former existence in Australia of a Mastodon, nearly 
allied to the M. angustidens, remains of which are so abundant 
in Europe, and also allied to the M. Andium of North and South 
America; and he observes that the fact of the wide distribution 
of remains of the Mastodon in Europe, Asia, and America, pre¬ 
pared him to receive with less surprise 'Clie unequivocal evidence 
of its existence in Australia also. Mr. Owen then proceeded to 
the consideration of the fossil remains of the Marsupialia, a class 
of animals to which, with the exception of small Rodentia, such 
as rats and mice, all the indigenous quadrupeds of Australia be¬ 
longed. With regard to the Diprotodon before mentioned, much 
additional evidence had been required to establish the marsupial 
character of a quadruped as large as a rhinoceros; and amongst 
the remains lately obtained in the bed of the Condamine river, 
at Moreton Bay, was a specimen consisting of the anterior part 
of the lower jaw, with the base of a tusk, and a portion of the 
molar teeth, the tusk being identical with one from AVellington 
Valley. This specimen shows that the animal possessed large in¬ 
cisive tusks, combined with molar teeth like those of the kanga¬ 
roo, characterised by two transverse ridges; the marsupial cha¬ 
racter of these remains was also indicated by the bending in of 
the angle of the jaw. Mr. Owen referred to a second gigantic 
