Cuscuses.[1] The dental formula is I 3/1 C 1/0 Pm 3/1 M 1/2; the last premolar is a great blade-shaped tooth like that of Potorous.
Nototherium was a creature smaller than Diprotodon, but still of large size; it is believed to have been a burrowing creature, and to connect the Wombats with Diprotodon. More certainly allied to the existing Wombat was Phascolonus, a Wombat as big as a Tapir.
Fig. 75.—Nototherium mitchelli. Side view of skull. × 1⁄6. (After Owen.)
Of extinct American Diprotodonts the Epanorthidae, already referred to in connexion with the living Caenolestes, were the most prominent forms. The genus Epanorthus occurs in the Santa Cruz formation of Patagonia, which is believed to be Miocene. The incisors are three in the upper jaw; and the single incisor of each ramus of the lower jaw is a great chisel-shaped, cutting instrument.
Abderites is also typically Diprotodont by reason of the large projecting incisors of the lower jaw. It has a large cutting tooth in the lower jaw, which appears to be the last premolar, and is thus comparable to the great cutting tooth of the lower jaw and of the upper jaw of the extinct Phalanger, Thylacoleo.
- ↑ Quite recently (Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. 1898, p. 1) the carnivorous character of Thylacoleo has been reasserted by Mr. Broom.
