352 
LECTURES ON PALAEONTOLOGY. 
to the same species as the cranium now in the Museum at 
Sydney. This cranium is chiefly remarkable for the great 
size and width of the zygomatic arches, which have also the 
descending process as in the Diprotodon. The facial bones 
in advance of the orbit form a kind of short pedunculate 
appendage to the rest of the skull, increasing in a remarka¬ 
ble manner in both vertical and lateral extents towards its 
fore extremity. The cavity of the nose was divided by a 
bony septum, as in one species of wombat. 
Thus were established proofs of the former existence in 
Australia of two genera of herbivorous marsupial animals, 
resembling the pachyderms in proportions; one ( Diprotodon ) 
equalling or surpassing in size the largest living rhinoceros, 
the other ( Nototherium ) equalling the ox or tapir. 
Professor Owen next referred to some fossils included in 
the collection sent by Dr. Hobson from Melbourne, Australia 
Felix, which belonged to a species of true wombat ( Thasco - 
lomys ), but four or five times larger than the largest known 
existing species. These fossils had been noticed by the Pro* 
fessor, and referred to Phascolomys Giyas in the Transactions 
of the Zoological Society . As early as 1842 Professor Owen 
inferred from the fact of there having been large herbivorous 
animals in Australia in former periods that a large carni¬ 
vorous animal had co-existed with them. In a letter to the 
editor of the Annals of Natural History , November 1st, 1842, 
he writes, “ Some destructive species of this kind must have 
co-existed of larger dimensions than the extinct Dasyurus 
Laniarius , the ancient destroyer of the now equally extinct 
gigantic kangaroo {Macropus Titan ) whose remains were dis¬ 
covered in the bone caves of Wellington Valley.” The Rev. 
Mr. Clarke, in his report to the Governor of Australia, 
No. 10, October 14th, 1853, c On the Geology of the Basin of 
the Condamine River/ referring to this remark, observes, 
The discovery of what must have existed cannot be alto¬ 
gether incapable of demonstration, and, therefore, such a 
verification of Professor Owen’s anticipation is to be hoped 
for on many grounds.” 
In 1846 the Professor received from Mr. William Adeney 
portions of a fossil skull of a carnivorous quadruped as large 
as a lion. These fossils were discovered in the banks of the 
Timboon lake, situate 80 miles south-west of Melbourne. 
The lake is shallow and becomes almost dry in autumn, when 
its bed is covered with a pretty thick deposit of common salt 
of good quality. The surrounding country is volcanic. The 
fossils occur in a narrow white strip of calcareous conglo¬ 
merate, traversing the clay cliff, which is here and there 
