Memoir on the Dodo (Didus ineptus, Linn.) — John Shaqi
Memoir on the Dodo (Didus ineptus, Linn.)Owen, Richard
History
Memoir on the Dodo (Didus ineptus, Linn.)
Owen, Richard
Dodo
“Where the nasal and maxillary processes diverge, there is a deep
groove externally, terminating in a canal directed forwards into
the rostral part or body of the premaxillary”[30]. This part is
subdecurved, pointed, roughened by irregular vascular perforations and
grooves, with a sharp alveolar border, which describes a sigmoid curve
lengthwise, and with a deeper concavity of the palatal surface than in
_Dinornis_ or _Didunculus_. Moreover the concavity is partially divided
lengthwise by a median ridge. The palatal surfaces of the maxillary
processes and maxillaries are narrow and very convex transversely,
intercepting a long narrow palato-nasal fissure. The outer side of the
maxillary process is deep vertically and slightly concave lengthwise—a
structure not known in _Didunculus_ or any Dove, and related, like
most other deviations from the Columbine cranial characteristics, to
the provision of unwonted strength of beak in the Dodo. The maxillary
branches of the premaxillary have completely coalesced with the
maxillaries, as these have with the palatines; and the halves of the
upper mandible here swell out laterally and more so vertically, the
maxillaries rising to combine with the outer divisions of the nasals,
and sending back a short process from their lower and lateral part to
join the malar. The inner surface of the maxillary process (Pl. XI.
fig. 1, 22*) is smooth and slightly convex vertically; both upper and
lower borders are obtuse and thick.
The palatines arch outward from their posterior attachments, are broad
and smooth mesially; the margin here is angular, with a slightly
produced obtuse apex, divided by a channel on the under surface of
the palatine from the outer convex border; the upper and outer ridge
extends forward to the maxillary; the inner one subsides before
reaching that bone. “The palatines form the posterior boundaries
of the naso-palatine aperture, and approximate each other at both
ends, but more closely posteriorly, yet here without meeting; whilst
in _Didunculus_ they coalesce before receiving the abutment of the
pterygoids.
“The tympanic bone is subquadrate, with the four angles produced, and
the upper and hinder are bifurcate, forming the double condyle for
the mastoid articulation”[31]. There is a larger pneumatic foramen,
communicating with the tympanic cavity, between the articulating
cavities for these condyles.
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