GIANTS OF THE PAST

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14771, 10 October 1921, Page 3

GIANTS OF THE PAST

AUSTRALIA’S EXTINCT ANIMALS. REMARKABLE JAW FOUND. From time to time discoveries arc made in various parts of Australia which prove the biggest kangaroos of to-day to be but the puny descendants of enormous creatures, whose skulls alone reached a yard in length. The latest remnant of these giants of the past is a phenomenal jaw which has just been found in a fossilised state on the bank of King’s Creek, near the Darling Downs, in South Queensland. The Director of the Queensland Museum slates that it represents the incomplete lower jaw of the giant extinct marsupial known as the d i pro to don Australis. Numerous remains, lie says, have been found in Queensland of this very large animal, and complete skeletons have been secured in the bed of Lake Callahonna. South Australia. Some idea of the size of this marsupial may he gauged from the length of the skull, which in an adult may be fully a

yard long. The diprotodon was undoubtedly herbivorous, and its upper and lower teeth somewhat resemble those of the kangaroo, although very greatly larger. The fore and hind limbs were of about the same length, and in this respect there is a likeness to the modern wombat. The diprotodon was probably a sluggish and inoffensive animal, and evidently roamed over the greater part of Australia. Its marsupial nature is abundantly revealed by many features of the skeleton, including the marsupial hones. In 1838 the late Sir Richard Owen first used -the name 'diprotodon, which means “Iwo front Iceth,” having reference to the Iwn large incisors in the front of the lower jaw.