Archive image from page 113 of Cuvier's animal kingdom arranged. Cuvier's animal kingdom : arranged according to its organization cuviersanimalkin00cuvi Year: 1840 102 MAMMALIA. tries, where thej constitute, very nearly indeed, the only mammiferous animals ; but fossil remains of them oceiu-, sparingly, in the ancient secondary deposits of Eiu-ope, where hitherto no higher Mammalia have been detected. Consequently, the Marsupiata would appear to have been much earlier introduced upon our planet ; a fui'ther indication, if not of their inferiority, at least of their intrinsical separateness
Archive image from page 113 of Cuvier's animal kingdom arranged. Cuvier's animal kingdom : arranged according to its organization cuviersanimalkin00cuvi Year: 1840 102 MAMMALIA. tries, where thej constitute, very nearly indeed, the only mammiferous animals ; but fossil remains of them oceiu-, sparingly, in the ancient secondary deposits of Eiu-ope, where hitherto no higher Mammalia have been detected. Consequently, the Marsupiata would appear to have been much earlier introduced upon our planet ; a fui'ther indication, if not of their inferiority, at least of their intrinsical separateness as a group : there is reason also to suspect that at former epochs they were much more numerous, as well as generally diffused, than at jiresent.] The first subdivision of them is distinguished by long canines, and small incisors to each jaw ; the back molars are beset with pointed tubercles, and the general character of the teeth is the same as in the Insectivora, which these animals entirely resemble in their regimen. The Opossums {Didelphis, Lin.),— Which of all the Marsupiata have been the longest known, compose a genus peculiar to America. They have ten incisors above, and eight below ; three anterior compressed molars, and four sharply tuberculated back molars, the superior of which are triangular, the inferior oblong : so that, with the four canines, they have in all fifty teeth, a number greater than has as yet been observed in any other Their tongue is bristled, and the tail prehensile and in part naked ; the hinder thumb is long and effectively opposable to the four- other digits, whence the name Pedimana has been apphed to these animals ; it is not furnished with a nail. Their extremely wide mouth, and large naked ears, give them a peculiar physiognomy. The glam penis is bifurcated. They are fetid and noctiu-nal animals, whose gait is slow ; nestle upon trees, and there pursue birds, insects, &c., without rejecting fruit : their stomach is small and sim
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