Our planet, its past and future; or, Lectures on geology . gigantic kangaroos, that must have nearlyequalled the hippopotamus in size, has been named, byOwen, diprotodon (animal having two front teeth). Theskull, which is now in the British Museum, metisuresthree feet in length. The hind limbs were muchshorter and stronger, and the front limbs were longerand larger, than thoAO of the living kangaroo. Theskull (Fig. 49), with part of the skeleton, was discoveredin a pliocene deposit on the Plains of Darling Downs,Australia. In the same formation have been found the i-cmainsof a carnivorous mars
Our planet, its past and future; or, Lectures on geology . gigantic kangaroos, that must have nearlyequalled the hippopotamus in size, has been named, byOwen, diprotodon (animal having two front teeth). Theskull, which is now in the British Museum, metisuresthree feet in length. The hind limbs were muchshorter and stronger, and the front limbs were longerand larger, than thoAO of the living kangaroo. Theskull (Fig. 49), with part of the skeleton, was discoveredin a pliocene deposit on the Plains of Darling Downs,Australia. In the same formation have been found the i-cmainsof a carnivorous marsupial rivalling the lion in extinct wombat was as large as a tiger. to have become less favorable for monstrous mapsupials; and they were eventually succeeded by the*smaller and feebler specimens that abound there at thepresent time. 240 LECTURES ON (JEOLOGY. When New Zealand was first discovered, no ma. nnalhwere found upon it, with the exception wf a rat; » ut itcontained many birds, — the most remarkable, a small Fi?. Htruliilous bird, that is, a bird of the ostrich family,;alled the apteryx (wingless), on account of its veryemail rudimental wings. In a specimen whose body LECTURKS ON ( 1! I 1 measured nineteen inches, the winj^s, strippe<l ui thefeatiiers, were only an inch and a half long ; ending ina hard, horny claw three inches long. .Several spucicfrof birds similar to the apteryx formerly existed in XcwZealand, ranging in height from three to ten feet. Asmall portion of a bone, says Mrs. Somcrville, whichfrom its dimensions appeared to belong rather to aquadruped of the size of an ox than to a bird, was sub-mitted to Mr. Owen. He boldly pronounced it, from it:istructure, to belong to a bird of the ostrich kind, — adecision that was soon abundantly confirmed by the dis-covery, not only of the bones of tlio l)ird, but of itseggs. This bird has been called the dinorniH (hugebird); and well it may. In one specimen, the leg-b
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