A Pictorial Atlas of Fossil Remains, consisting of coloured illustrations selected from Parkinson's "Organic remains of a former world," and Artis's "Antediluvian phytology."Mantell, Gideon Algernon
Science
A Pictorial Atlas of Fossil Remains, consisting of coloured illustrations selected from Parkinson's "Organic remains of a former world," and Artis's "Antediluvian phytology."
Mantell, Gideon Algernon
Paleontology
With regard to the construction of the feet it may be further
remarked, that the length of the inner and outer toes is nearly
equal, as in the Cassowary; but the middle toe, which in the
Cassowary is one-third longer than the other digits, in the Moa
scarcely exceeds in length by one-fifth, the inner and outer toes.
The ungueal segments are very large, being equal to one-third the
length of the toes. The phalangeals are relatively much shorter than
in the Cassowary and Ostrich, and wider than in the former, and more
arched than in either of these living struthious birds.
In the metatarsal the presence of the three elements whose fusion
constitutes the bone, is strongly marked; there does not appear
to be any certain indications of a posterior or hind toe, though
Professor Owen imagines he has detected feeble traces of a fourth
digit: in that case the bird to which my specimens belonged, would
be termed _Palapteryx_. The crania found by Mr. Walter Mantell at
Waingongoro, and figured and described by Professor Owen in the
Zoological Transactions (Vol. III., Plates 52, 53, 54, 55), as
Dinornis and Palapteryx, must have belonged to birds of comparatively
small stature. The skull with the adze-like upper mandible, and
the enormously-developed _basi-occipitals_ and _basi-sphenoids_
(_Dinornis_, of Professor Owen, Plate 53), was found associated with
many vertebræ of the neck and back, and bones of the leg, of the same
bird; and these my son states indicated a height of from six to seven
feet. The skull and the rest of the skeleton were found imbedded in
sand, and lying in their natural relative position; unfortunately,
all these precious remains, except the cranium, were destroyed by
a sudden rush of the natives to seize upon the exhumed relics! It
therefore yet remains to discover the cranial type that characterized
the colossal forms at present known only by other parts of the
skeleton.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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