The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 10 (of 10)Beddard, Frank E. (Frank Evers)
Science
The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 10 (of 10)
Beddard, Frank E. (Frank Evers)
Animals; Mammals
clearer, as palaeontological investigation proceeds, that the bulk of the
Ungulate and the Carnivorous, Insectivorous, and perhaps Lemuroid stocks
converge into the early Eocene Creodonta. From the Lemuroid branch the
higher Primates can be derived. The only "Ungulates" which cannot be fitted
in with some reasonable probability is the group of the Proboscidea. But of
the early forms of this division we have at present no knowledge.
* * * * *
{122}
CHAPTER VII
EUTHERIA--MARSUPIALIA
ORDER I. MARSUPIALIA[69]
The Marsupials may be thus defined:--Terrestrial, arboreal, or burrowing
(rarely aquatic) mammals, with furry integuments; palate generally somewhat
imperfectly ossified; jugal bone reaching as far as the glenoid cavity;
angle of lower jaw nearly always inflected. The clavicle is developed.
Arising from the pubes are well developed and ossified epipubic bones.
Fourth toe usually the most pronounced. Teeth often exceed the typical
Eutherian number of forty-four; molars generally four on each side of each
jaw. As a rule but one tooth of the milk set is functional, which is
(according to many) the fourth premolar. Teats lying within a pouch, in
which the young are placed. Young born in an imperfect condition, and
showing certain larval characters. There is a shallow cloaca. The testes
are extra-abdominal, but hang in front of the penis. In the brain the
cerebellum is completely exposed; the hemispheres are furrowed, but the
corpus callosum is rudimentary. An allantoic placenta is rarely present.
Structurally the Marsupials are somewhat intermediate between the
Prototheria and the more typical Eutheria, with a greater resemblance to
the latter.
[Illustration]
FIG. 59.--Rock Wallaby (_Petrogale xanthopus_), with young in pouch. x 1/7.
(After Vogt and Specht.)
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