Memoir on the Dodo (Didus ineptus, Linn.)Owen, Richard
History
Memoir on the Dodo (Didus ineptus, Linn.)
Owen, Richard
Dodo
Of the humerus the series contains two specimens, both measuring 4
inches 3 lines in length, one right, and the other left (Pl. VIII.
figs. 12–14), but differing slightly in their proportions and in
colour—one being of the olive-brown tint with which most of the bones
are stained, the other black. The articular head (ib. _a_) is an
elongate oval convexity, with the larger end toward the radial side,
prominent toward the back and rather flattened toward the front of the
bone, which there swells out beyond the base of the articular surface.
The radial tubercle is small, and descends from the radial end of the
head for about 5 lines; the pectoral process (ib. _b_) is triangular,
obtuse, short, and bent, or directed toward the front side of the bone:
the ulnar tuberosity (ib. _c_) is more produced in that direction; it
is oblong, obtuse, with its base impressed by a large pit both above
(fig. 12, _h_) and below—the lower one (ib. _g_) being the deepest,
and perforated by a pneumatic foramen; the convex, broad, ulnar border
of this tuberosity has two slightly produced processes, an upper or
posterior (ib. fig. 12, _c_) and a lower and internal (ib. _g_), which
is the smallest. The breadth of the proximal end of the humerus, across
the tuberosities, is 1 inch 5 lines, beyond them the bone contracts
to a smooth subcylindrical shaft, showing at the back part of the
proximal third a longitudinal ridge (fig. 12, _r_), half an inch in
length; it gradually expands at the distal third to a breadth of 10
lines, where the articulations offer the usual avian characteristics
of the elbow-joint. The head of the humerus is occupied by a fine
cancellous structure: into the large vacuity below this, crossed in
the section figured (Pl. XI. fig. 5) by a transverse slender bar of
bone, the small pneumatic foramina at the bottom of the wide and deep
fossa for the axillary air-cell open. The part of the hollow proximal
end giving off the pectoral and other processes for the attachment of
muscles is strengthened by similar abutments. The pneumatic cavity of
the main part of the shaft of the humerus is simple, with a compact
wall thicker than at the ends of the humerus, but not exceeding that
which is characteristic of the long air-bones in birds. The portion
of the distal end chiefly serving for muscular attachments and the
antibrachial articulation are also cancellous.
The _radius_ (Pls. III. & XII. fig. 15) is a straight and slender bone,
3 inches 1 line in length, and 2 lines in chief diameter of the shaft.
The proximal articular surface is subcircular, 3 lines in diameter,
moderately concave; the distal end expands to the same extent, but is
compressed, as usual.
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