GIANTS OF THE PAST.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 November 1921, Page 10

GIANTS OF THE PAST.

ENORMOUS ANIMALS. REMAINS IN AUSTRALIA. From time to time discoveries are made in various part of Australia which prove the largest kangaroos of to-day to be but the puny descendants of enormous creatures, whose skulls alone reached a yard in length. The Jatest 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 states that it represents the incomplete lower jaw of the giant extinct marsupial known as the diprotodon Australis. Numerous remains, he says, have been found in Queensland of this very large- animal, and complete skeletons have been secured in the bed of Lake Callabonna, South Australia. Some idea of the size of this marsupial may be 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 tte kangaroo, although very much larger. The fore and hind limbs were of about the same length, and in this respect there is a likeness to the modern wombat. 'l’he 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 bones. In 1838 tile late Sir Richard Owen first used the name diprotodon. which means “two front teeth,” having reference to the two large incisors in the front of the lower jaw.