Abstract
WE are glad to find that in spite of the unpromising news which has recently reached England concerning the present condition of the Geological Survey of Victoria, the palæontological work, which is in the hands of such a well-tried and indefatigable naturalist as Prof. McCoy, continues to make satisfactory progress. The present decade of the Prodromus is of more than local interest, containing as it does interesting new details concerning Owen's marsupial lion, the Thylacoleo carnifex. The result of Prof. McCoy's examination of more perfect specimens than those on which the first description species was based, is to suggest modifications in some of the views published by Prof. Owen, but to add confirmation to that author's main position concerning the carnivorous habits of the animal, a conclusion which was called in question by Dr. Falconer and Prof. Flower. Scarcely less interesting at the present time is the illustration and description of a species belonging to the sub-genus of Nautilus, known as Aturia. A similar form has been found by Dr. Hector in New Zealand, but in rocks of far older date, and the facts which have already come to light concerning the distribution in space and time of this remarkable genus are such as to invest it with the very highest interest both to the geologist and biologist.
Geological Survey of Victoria. Prodromus of the Palœontology of Victoria.
Decade 3. By Frederick McCoy. (Melbourne.—London: Trübner and Co., 1876.)
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Geological Survey of Victoria. Prodromus of the Palœontology of Victoria. Nature 14, 130 (1876). https://doi.org/10.1038/014130a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/014130a0