XV. On the homologies and succession of the teeth in dasyuridœ, with an attempt to trace the history of the evolution of mammalian teeth in general

Abstract

In the year 1867 a paper was contributed to the Royal Society by Professor Flower, “ On the Development and Succession of the Teeth in the Marsupialia,” a paper which became at once the standard authority on the subject, and in which it was shown conclusively that among the Marsupialia only one single tooth ever had a deciduous or “ milk ” predecessor, and that this tooth was one homologous throughout the order, and corresponding to the last premolar of the ordinary Placental Mammals. This paper was followed by another, in which fresh observations were recorded on the presence or absence of a tooth-change in the Marsupials and other Mammals, and notes made on the methods of tooth-notation in use—a subject which naturally arises out of all investigations into the homologies of teeth.