318 
LECTURES ON TALiEONTOLOGY. 
the rest of the class to which the living marsupial quadrupeds 
belong. 
Not any marsupial species is indigenous to the continents 
of Europe, Asia, or Africa. On the discovery of America, 
some small quadrupeds of that continent became known, to 
naturalists, as being peculiar by possessing a pouch in which 
the young were protected and carried for some time after 
birth, whence the name Marsupialia , signifying “pouched 
beasts.” The American species all belong to one genus, 
called Didelphys , or opossum. They are small insectivorous 
quadrupeds, and most of them dwell in trees. 
When Captain Cook and Sir Joseph Banks returned from 
the circumnavigatory voyage in which Botany Bay was dis¬ 
covered, they brought information of other curious marsupial 
animals which lived in Australia, and especially that called 
the “ kangaroo,” so remarkable for the length and strength 
of the hind legs and tail. The subsequent travellers and 
settlers in Australia soon transmitted additional information, 
with specimens of the peculiar marsupial quadrupeds of that 
continent, so that the Marsupialia are now known as an ex¬ 
tensive order, the species of which are restricted to 
America, Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and a few 
islands extending thence towards Asia. 
The principal genera were then described, some being car¬ 
nivorous, others insectivorous, others frugivorous, or feeding 
on buds and leaves, others herbivorous, others burrowing 
and living on roots. The opossums ( Didelphys ) are peculiar 
to America; none are found in Australasia. The greatest 
number and diversity of marsupial quadrupeds exist in 
Australia and Tasmania. 
Of the present known existing Marsupialia , the largest 
species are the great kangaroo ( Macropus major), familiar to 
most by living specimens in menageries and zoological 
gardens, and the thylacine, or hyena of the Tasmanian 
colonist; the latter is carnivorous, and about the size of the 
shepherd’s dog; most of the Marsupialia are smaller than 
the common cat. 
Professor Owen then proceeded to give a history of the 
discovery of fossil remains of animals in Australia. The first 
which he noticed was that made by Major, afterwards Sir 
Thomas, Mitchell, the Surveyor-General of Australia in 1831. 
In his first exploring expedition this traveller discovered ex¬ 
tensive caves in the limestone district of Wellington Valley, 
and in the breccias of the caves he found many fossil bones 
and teeth, which were submitted to Professor Owen’s inspec¬ 
tion, and described by him in the appendix to the account 
