XXIII. On the fossil mammals of Australia─Part III. Diprotodon australis, Owen

Abstract

In a letter dated May 8th, 1838, addressed to Sir Thomas Mitchell, F. G. S., Surveyor-General of Australia, giving results of an examination of a series of Fossil Remains from caves in ‘Wellington Valley,’ and published in his ‘Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia,’ vol. ii. 8vo, 1838, one of the specimens was described as follows:— “Genus Diprotodon. I apply this name to the genus of Mammalia , represented by the anterior extremity of the right ramus, lower jaw, with a single large procumbent incisor (IX.), fig. 1, pl. 31. This is the specimen conjectured to have belonged to the Dugong, but the incisor resembles the corresponding tooth of the Wombat in its enamelled structure and position (see fig. 2, pl. 31, and a section of the Wombat’s teeth in fig. 7, pl. 30). It differs, however, in the quadrilateral figure of its transverse section, in which it corresponds with the inferior incisors of the Hippopotamus . To this Diprotodon , or to some distinct species of equal size, have belonged the fragments of bones of extremities marked X, X a , X b ” (p. 362).