Miscellanea . 
455 
naturally arose in my mind after having received evidence of the 
marsupial character of the Diprotodon and Nototherium *, two 
extinct Australian genera, with the tapiroid type of molars, re¬ 
presented by species as large as a Rhinoceros. 
The more complex character of the molars of the Mastodon, 
and the restriction of that character, so far as is now known, to 
that genus only, makes it much more probable, however, that the 
molar here described belonged to a true Mastodon, and the species 
may be provisionally termed Mastodon australis. 
ON THE EXTINCT MAMMALS OF AUSTRALIA: with 
Additional Observations on the Genus Binornis , of New 
Zealand. By Professor Owen, F.R.S. 
( Front the Proceedings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science—Fifteenth 
Meeting. —Athenaeum, July, 1845) 
June 24, 1845. 
In a previous Report, Professor Owen had demonstrated the 
former existence in Australia of two genera of Marsupial 
animals, rivalling in size the rhinoceros and hippopotamus of 
the old continent. Since the reading of his first Report, 
Professor Owen had received three molar teeth belonging to 
the upper jaw of the Diprotodon; the crown of each tooth 
was divided into two principal transverse ridges, like those of 
the lower jaw, and the enamel presented the wrinkled and punc¬ 
tate surface peculiar to the genus. With these was found a 
large scalpriform incisor, whose bevelled cutting edge showed 
that it worked upon a similar tooth in the lower jaw. The Dipro¬ 
todon, therefore, had molars like the kangaroo; but, instead of 
the two large incisors in the lower jaw being opposed to six 
smaller in the upper, as in the kangaroo, it had two large incisors 
above as well as below, agreeing in form and structure, and 
relative size, with those of the Wombat. Prof. Owen considered 
* The characters of these genera and the evidences of their marsupial nature, will bo 
the subject ol a future communication. 
