There is one well-known case which may represent all. It is an
excellent illustration of Cuvier's sagacity, and he evidently
takes some pride in telling his story about it. A split slab of
stone arrived from the quarries of Montmartre, the two halves of
which contained the greater part of the skeleton of a small
animal. On careful examinations of the characters of the teeth
and of the lower jaw, which happened to be exposed, Cuvier
assured himself that they presented such a very close
resemblance to the corresponding parts in the living opossums
that he at once assigned the fossil to that genus.
Now the opossums are unlike most mammals in that they possess
two bones attached to the fore part of the pelvis, which are
commonly called "marsupial bones." The name is a misnomer,
originally conferred because it was thought that these bones
have something to do with the support of the pouch, or
marsupium, with which some, but not all, of the opossums are
provided. As a matter of fact, they have nothing to do with the
support of the pouch, and they exist as much in those opossums
which have no pouches as in those which possess them. In truth,
no one knows what the use of these bones may be, nor has any
valid theory of their physiological import yet been suggested.
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