Researches of the fossil remains of the extinct mammals of Australia; with a notice of the extinct marsupials of England.

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Owen, Richard.

The finest work ever published on the extinct Australian megafauna and similar in format to his other palaeontological classic Memoirs on the extinct wingless birds. This is a collection of various articles primarily published in the Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, repaginated and altered to form an independent book.

Owen described the giant extinct marsupial Diprotodont and the carnivorous marsupial Thylaceleo. "To what cause, it may be asked, is due the extinction in Australia of the genera Diprotodont ... No adequate cause suggests itself to my mind save the hostile agency of man. Thylacinus and Sarcophilus are still represented by smaler species in Tasmania; but they will soon be things of the past". The first specimens of Thylaceleo were supplied by Gerard Krefft and sent to Owen for description. This was the cause of much resentment on the part of Krefft who disagreed with Owen's assessment that Thylaceleo was a giant carnivorous marsupial. Krefft's arguments coupled with Owen's increasing isolation with the British scientific community, due to his anti-Darwinian stance, carried some weight but Owen's original opinion is now accepted.

Nissen ZBI 3053; not in Wood. See also Finney, Colin. To sail beyond the sunset: natural history in Australia 1699-1829. Melbourne: Museum of Victoria, 1993.

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