Supplement to the catalogue of seals and whales in the British MuseumGray, John Edward
Science
Supplement to the catalogue of seals and whales in the British Museum
Gray, John Edward
Seals (Animals); Whales
Arctocephalus schisthyperoës, _Turner_, _Journ. Anat._ 1868, p.
113, f. ⸺.
Arctocephalus schistuperus, _Günther_, _Zool. Record_, 1868, p.
20.
Arctocephalus antarcticus, _Gray_; _Allen_, _Bull. Mus. Comp.
Zool._ ii. p. 45.
Arctocephalus Delalandii, _Gray_, _P. Z. S._ 1859, t. 69
(skull); _Ann. & Mag. N. H._ 1866, vol. xviii. p. 235; _Cat. S.
& W._ p. 52.
Phoca ursina, _Cuvier_, _Oss. Foss._ t. 219. f. 5.
Arctocephalus ursinus, _F. Cuvier_, _Mém. Mus._ vol. xi. p.
205, t. 15, no. 1. _a_, _b_, _c_ (skull).
Otaria ursina, _Nilsson_.
Halarctus Delalandii, _Gill_, _l. c._ p. 7.
Otaria (Arctocephalus) pusilla, _Peters_, _Monatsb._ 1866, pp.
271 & 671.
_Junior._ Petit Phoque, _Buffon_, _H. N._ xiii. t. 53, = Phoca
pusilla, _Schreb._
Inhab. South Africa, Cape of Good Hope.
The two adult skulls in the British Museum differ greatly in the width
of the hinder nasal opening, in the form of the hinder lower lateral
processes of the occipital bone, in the form of the back of that bone,
and in the shape of the condyles.
The skull from the Cape of Good Hope, in the Museum of the University
of Edinburgh, was described and figured by Dr. Turner under the name
of _Arctocephalus schisthyperoës_, in the ‘Journal of Anatomy and
Physiology,’ vol. iii. p. 113. The name is changed to _A. schistuperus_
by Dr. Günther in the ‘Zoological Record’ for 1868, p. 20. It is
evidently the skull of a half-grown animal, with all its teeth developed,
but with the sutures of the bones still apparent. It agrees in every
respect with what I should expect to be the form and structure of the
skull of _Arctocephalus antarcticus_ from the Cape; but unfortunately the
two skulls of that Sea-bear from the Cape which are in the British Museum
are from old animals; and the specimen figured by Cuvier, Oss. Foss.
v. 220, t. 18. f. 5, is also adult. It differs from the skulls of the
two adult specimens of that species in the British Museum in the hinder
nasal aperture being much extended forwards and gradually tapering to a
point in front, which reaches to the transverse palato-maxillary suture.
This peculiarity in the form of the palate, which Prof. Turner has not
observed in any other seal-skull, seems to have induced him to regard it
as a distinct species. From the examination I have made of the skulls of
Seals in the Museum and other collections, I am induced to believe that
it is an individual abnormality of _Arctocephalus antarcticus_. I have
observed a similar malformation in the palates of two other species.
I was myself misled by their structure, before I met with the other
examples, to regard a skull with such a deformity as a distinct species.
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