Account of the Skeleton of the Mammoth: A non-descript carnivorous animal of immense size, found in America — John Shaqi
Account of the Skeleton of the Mammoth: A non-descript carnivorous animal of immense size, found in AmericaPeale, Rembrandt
History
Account of the Skeleton of the Mammoth: A non-descript carnivorous animal of immense size, found in America
Peale, Rembrandt
Mammoths -- North America
The tusk which belongs to the skeleton at Philadelphia, I have brought
with me: in taking it from the ground it was broken into three pieces,
but they were carefully put together, and give the entire form, composed
of a strong arch and a spiral twist resembling an ox’s horn, ten feet
six inches in length and twenty-one inches in circumference. In the
Leverian Museum there is a fossil elephant’s tusk found in England,
about seven feet in length: On making a comparison between these it will
be observed, that in the Leverian tusk there is not the smallest twist,
and but a gentle curve; whereas in this animal they are much more
crooked in every respect; the consequence of which is, that as the
cavities for the reception of the tusks lie more horizontal (from a
similar direction between the teeth and the condyle of the neck), the
tusks are much more elevated, and the ends pointing backwards. It is the
opinion of many, that these tusks might have been reversed in the living
animal, with their points downwards; but as we know not the kind of
enemy it had to fear, we judged only by analogy in giving them the
direction of the elephant, especially as we know of no other carnivorous
animal with only eight grinders and two tusks: Neither the tusk itself,
nor the cavities for the reception of them, could assist in the
determination, as they were both very straight, and would equally answer
one way as the other.
There is one bone less in the neck of this animal than in the elephant;
and we are confident of having the whole, for two reasons; _1st_, The
neck-bones were found with the first skeleton all together, in their
natural positions, and the first bone of the back, with which the sixth
vertebræ of the neck articulated as exactly as it did with the fifth;
and, from the configuration of these bones, every anatomist knows this
could not be the case was there a bone wanting: This is strong
presumption, had we not the completely satisfactory proof of finding
them all together. And, _2dly_, Among the collections of bones which we
have seen, we have never met with a single bone resembling a seventh
vertebra of the neck.
It was a more difficult task to determine the number of dorsal and
lumber vertebræ, as those we dug up ourselves were not only found much
scattered, but several which had been dug up by the farmer were in the
possession of some of the workmen in the neighbourhood, to the distance
of seven miles round: these we collected with all possible care, and had
the satisfaction to find they agreed in number with those of the
elephant; still further corroborated by a perfect agreement between them
and the nineteen pair of ribs, leaving three vertebræ for the loins.
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