The "Mika" or "Kulpi" operation of the Australian aboriginals / by T.P. Anderson Stuart.
- Thomas Peter Anderson Stuart
- Date:
- [1896?]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The "Mika" or "Kulpi" operation of the Australian aboriginals / by T.P. Anderson Stuart. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
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!['[ From the Proceedings of the Lxnnean Society of N'ew South Wales 1898, Part 1, April S7th.] ON THE AFFINITIES AND HABITS OF THYLACOLEO. By R. Broom, M.D., B.Sc. The nature of few fossil animals has been more discussed than that of the remarkable extinct Australian form to which Owen gave the name of Thylacoleo carnifex. Not only has there been considerable difference of opinion as to the affinities of the animal, but its probable habits have been even more debated. The first important paper on Thylacoleo was published by- Owen in 1859.* In this paper are described the greater part of the posterior half of the skull, a fragment of the maxilla, and the main part of the ramus of the lower jaw. From the examination of the foramina at the base of the skull, together with one or two other characters, Owen was led to conclude that the remains were those of a Marsupial, while from the characters of the temporal fossse, occiput, and especially from the rudimentary condition of the molars, together with the enormously large and cutting pre- molars, which bore a considerable superficial resemblance to those •of the cat tribe, he was further led to the conclusion that the form had been a carnivore, and one of the fellest and most destructive of predatory beasts.! His views of its affinities at this time probably were that it had its nearest relatives in the Dasyuridce, bearing apparently a somewhat similar relationship to the existing carnivorous forms that the lion does to the dog. At this time there was no evidence as to whether the large tooth in the front of the jaw, indicated only by the socket, was a canine * On the Fossil Mammals of Australia. Part i. Description of a mutilated Skull of a large Marsupial Carnivore (Thylacoleo carnifex, Owen) irom a calcareous conglomerate stratum, eighty miles S.W. of Melbourne, Vic. Phil. Traos. Vol. 149, 1S59. t Loc. cit. p. 319. 12-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21467997_0015.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
