A Cuvierian principle in palaeontology tested by evidences of an extinct leonine mammal (Thylacoleo carnifex) / by Professor Owen.
- Owen, Richard, Sir, 1804-1892.
- Date:
- 1871
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A Cuvierian principle in palaeontology tested by evidences of an extinct leonine mammal (Thylacoleo carnifex) / by Professor Owen. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![The teeth in the lower jaw are the root and base of the crown of the incisor (i), and the entire carnassial 4). I was thus still driven, as far as these specimens went, to an inferential conclusion as to the form of the crown of the anterior incisor, both above and below. But, since pre- paring for the Eoyal Society a description of the specimens, I have been favoured by photographs and fossils of both these teeth nearly complete, and also with a plaster cast of the entire lower incisor, now in the Museum of Natural History at Sydney, New South Wales, through the kindness of the Trustees of that Museum and of their able Curator, Mr. Geeaed Keefft, Corr. M.Z.S. The teeth transmitted and the subjects of the photographs were obtained from the Breccia-cave in Wellington Valley*, in the course of recent assiduous researches con- ducted by Alex. M. Thomson, D.Sc., Eeader on Geology, Sydney University, and by Mr. Keefft, in 1869, aided by the liberal grant of £200 voted by the Local Parliament of New South Wales in favourable response to the Memorial which I addressed to the Colonial Secretary, February 23rd, 1867f. Whatever interpretation may ultimately be accepted in palaeontology of the habits and affinities of Thylacoleo, additional and valuable materials for such interpretation have thus been added to the subjects of former descriptions: an account of these addi- tions, with their bearing on the arguments that have been opposed to my conclusions, I have now the honour to submit to the Eoyal Society. § 2. Upper Jaw and Maxillary Teeth.—The specimen of this part of the skull (Plate XI.) includes almost the entire premaxillary (tigs. 1-5,22), with its alveolar (a, a!), nasal (?^), and palatal [p) portions. The alveolar portion contains the socket [a] of the anterior large laniariform incisor [i 1), that of a much smaller incisor (^ 2) opening close to the first, and, after an interval of two lines, the front half of the socket {c) of a small canine (fig. 9), the division of which socket is made, or rather indicated, by the premaxillo-maxillary suture (5, s'): this third socket is rather larger than the second, and is more outwardly placed. The nasal portion of the premaxillary forms anteriorly, above the deep socket of the first incisor, a thick obtuse margin (fig. 4,22), convex transversely, concave vertically and also laterally toward the nasal cavity (ib. n); it becomes much thinner above the socket, then regains thickness at its upper part, where the plate arches inward to join the nasal bone. A ridge (r) for the attachment of the inferior “ turbinal ” divides the fore part of the nasal chamber into an upper (n) and a lower (n') passage. The palatal process (figs. 2 & 3, jo 22') is thick and short; it projects forward about four lines in advance of the first large alveolus (fig. p%), is grooved above, lengthwise, where it forms that part of the fioor of the nostril, w'; and it is also grooved or chan- * Discovered by Colonel Sir Thomas Mitcetell, C.B., F.G.S., and described in his work, ‘ Three Ex2)editions into the Interior of Eastern Australia,’ 8vo, vol. ii. 1838. t “On the Fossil Mammals of Australia.—Part III.,” Philosophical Transactions, 1870, p. 569. X As shown in the subject of the Memoir, Philoso^jhical Transactions, 1866, Plate ii. 2 G 2](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2241440x_0007.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
