Guide to the galleries of mammalia (mammalian, osteological, cetacean) in the Department of Zoology of the British Museum (Natural History).
- British Museum (Natural History). Department of Zoology.
- Date:
- 1892
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Guide to the galleries of mammalia (mammalian, osteological, cetacean) in the Department of Zoology of the British Museum (Natural History). Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![[Case 24,J Wombats, which, with but few exceptions, live chiefly upon vegetable food ; to the latter, carnivorous both in structure and habits, the Opossums, Dasyures, and Bandicoots. The Kangaroos (Case 24, Div. B) belong to the first group ; their dental formula, when fully developed, being I. C. Pm. r!, M. ^x2 = 34; some of the anterior grinding-teeth, however, are generally lost before the posterior are in position. The modifications of the bones of the hind feet accompanying their extraordinary “ syndactylous structure has been already referred to (p. 54). Skeletons ai*e exhibited of a male and female Red Kangaroo {Macropus rufus), of a Tree-Kangaroo {Dendrolagus), and a Rat- Kangaroo [Potorous). Numerous fossil remains of animals allied to Kangaroos, some as large as a Rhinoceros, have been found in the fluviatile deposits of Australia, among which may be specially mentioned the huge Viprotodon australis, whose head is figured in the Geological Guide, p. 31. The Phalangers [PhalangeridcP) differ from the Kangaroos by the possession of a large opposable hallux, and by the comparative shortness of their hind feet. Their teeth are remarkably variable in form and number, the ten genera of the family being founded almost entirely on these variations. The dental formula ranges from I. f, C. 1, Pm. f, M. f x 2 = 28, to I. f, C. |, Pm. M. |, X 2 = 40. In the aberrant Tarsipes rostratus the molar teeth are so reduced and variable that no definite number can be assigned to it. The feet are syndactylous, as in the Kangaroos, but the dis- proportion between the bones of the united second and third toes on the one hand, and the fourth on the other, is not so great as in those animals. The Phalangers vary in size from animals as small as a mouse, as for example Acrohatespygmams, toothers larger than a cat, such as the Koala {Phascolarctus cinereus). Skeletons are exhibited of the latter animal, of a Cuscus [Phalanger maculatus), and of a Flying Phalanger {Petaurus sciureus). The Pliascolomyidce, or Wombats, arc the only Marsupials with rootless teeth and an equal number of incisors in each jaw, their dentition being I. C. j], Pm. M. | x 2 = 24. The incisors are large and cutting, with the enamel confined to their anterior](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28122574_0112.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
