The Deseado Formation of PatagoniaLoomis, Frederic Brewster
Science
The Deseado Formation of Patagonia
Loomis, Frederic Brewster
Paleontology -- Patagonia (Argentina and Chile)
The metacarpals are longer than those of Adinotherium, and are much
more closely pressed together, making a narrower, firmer foot. Three
metacarpals are present (beside the modular vestige of Mc. V.). Mc.
II and Mc. IV are slightly shorter than Mc. III, but not materially
weaker, so that all three would reach the ground when the animal was
standing. Though closely packed, the metacarpals are not grown together
at any point. Distally each has a narrow trochlea, which carries a
median crest on the palmar side only. Under the distal end of each
metacarpal, there is a pair of small sesamoid bones.
All the phalanges are very short and weak, with the articular surfaces
cut under obliquely, suggesting that the toes are bent upward. Distally
each toe ends in a slender cleft ungual phalanx, suggesting a claw-like
hoof. _Rhynchippus_ clearly walked in a semidigitigrade manner, the
weight coming principally on the metapodials, the foot as a whole
resembling that of a dog.
The pelvis is unidentified. Though the bones are of about the same
weight, the hind limb is longer than that of Adinotherium. The femur
has a rounded head on a short but distinct neck, with the pit for the
round ligament on the posterior margin of the head. The narrow digital
fossa is deep. The greater trochanter is rugose and strong, but does
not rise quite to the height of the head. The lesser trochanter makes
a strong shelf-like process well below the head, while the third
trochanter is a prominent process about the middle of the shaft, on the
posterior side. The shaft is broad and flattened above, but narrows and
becomes circular in section below. The condyles are relatively small,
the inner being the smaller and more convex, while the outer is broader
and less convex.
The tibia and fibula are a little longer than the femur, fused
proximally, free distally, as in toxodonts. The proximal end of the
tibia is too weathered to permit detailed description. However the
upper end is wide and flattened from front to back. Distally the bone
narrows until the lower part of the shaft is circular in section, the
distal end enlarging again in the neighborhood of the articulation. The
fibula has a broad facet for the inner side of the astragulus, and on
the distal end a flattened slightly concave facet for the calcaneum.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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