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
“Fingers four, elongate. Cervical vertebræ ⸺? Lumbar and anterior caudal
vertebræ longer than their greatest diameter. Dorsal fin wanting. Gular
and pectoral region without folds. Scapula with well-developed acromion
and coracoid. Baleen narrow, short, curved.
“The baleen is peculiar; throughout the length of the maxillary bone it
nowhere exceeded one foot in length, and the width of the band, or length
of the base of each plate, four inches. It is of a creamy white; the
fringe very coarse, white, and resembling hogs’ bristles.
“The ear-bone is much compressed, with an inferior carina, towards which
the lip of dense bone is suddenly decurved. The longitudinal opening is
much contracted, especially anteriorly, where the bone is pinched up into
a keel; and there is no abrupt concavity of the inner lip at that point.
External surface not very rugose. Total length 3 in. 2·5 lines.
“The scapula preserved is low and elongate, with well-developed acromion
and coracoid process. It is evidently of the type of _Balænoptera_
and _Physalus_; the ulna and radius relatively less elongate than in
_Sibbaldius laticeps_ and _borealis_, being 1·5 as long as the humerus,
thus resembling _Physalus_.
“The four fingers, with the second much the longest, form a fin of the
type of those genera.
“The ear-bone is much more compressed than in _Physalus antiquorum_ or
_Sibbaldius laticeps_.
“The mandibular ramus is rather massive, moderately curved, and with a
more elevated coronoid process than in any Whale that I have seen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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