Fig. 148—Wynyardia bassiana, Spencer.
Upper Cainozoic (Turritella bed). Table Cape. Tasmania.
2/7th nat. size.
(Casts in Nat. Mus. Coll.)
Oldest Known Marsupial.
The oldest marsupial found in Australia is probably Wynyardia bassiana ([Fig. 147]), whose remains occurred in the Turritella-bed at Table Cape, which is either of Miocene or Lower Pliocene age. This stratum occurs above the well-known Crassatellites-bed (Miocene) of that locality. So far as can be gathered from its incomplete dentition, Wynyardia represents an annectant form between the Diprotodonts and the Polyprotodonts.
Pleistocene Genera, also Living.—
Besides the genera above enumerated, many other marsupials of well-known living species are represented by fossil remains in Cave-deposits and on “sand-blows” in most of the Australian States. The genera thus represented in the Pleistocene deposits of Australia are Bettongia (Prehensile Rat-Kangaroo); Dasyurus (Native Cat); Hypsiprymnus (Rat-Kangaroo); Macropus (Kangaroo); Perameles (Bandicoot); Petaurus (Flying Phalanger); Phalanger (Cuscus); Phascolomys (Wombat); Sarcophilus (Tasmanian Devil); Thylacinus (Tasmanian Wolf).
Cetacea.—