The Deseado Formation of PatagoniaLoomis, Frederic Brewster
Science
The Deseado Formation of Patagonia
Loomis, Frederic Brewster
Paleontology -- Patagonia (Argentina and Chile)
The three lower incisors are expanded at their ends into thick
shovel-like crowns, each with a strong crescentic cingulum on the
posterior face, and with a shallow furrow on both the front and back
faces. Relatively the incisors are much larger and longer than in
_Astrapotherium_.
The lower canine is flattened on the upper face, so that its cross
section is close to semicircular making a typical permanently growing
rooting implement. This tooth is relatively shorter and smaller than in
_Astrapotherium_.
Premolars 1 and 2 are wanting, a long diastema occupying the interval
between the canine and pm. 3. Premolar 3 is greatly reduced in size,
and in my specimen has fallen out, being represented by a small
alveolus. I judge that in old individuals it falls out. The fourth
premolar and the molars are typically those of _Toxodontia_. The young
show two plump crescents, with a low plump pillar, situated near the
anterior horn of the posterior crescent, which pillar, as the tooth
wears, unites with the anterior horn.
The scapula is a remarkably heavy and elongated bone, greatly arched
where it lay over the ribs. The spine is high and heavy, with the upper
margin developed into a thick ridge like a banister rail, which is
prolonged in front to, or a little beyond, the level of the glenoid
fossa, this distal portion being expanded into a broad plate more
than half as wide as the widest portion of the blade of the scapula.
The glenoid fossa is relatively small, oval in outline, and with the
long axis parallel to the long axis of the body. The anterior margin
of the articular surface is reflexed, apparently to come in contact
with the base of the greater tuberosity of the humerus. This glenoid
cavity is only large enough to actually cover about half of the head
of the humerus, and fits so that, in a position of rest, the glenoid
covered the outer part of the humeral head, and only articulated on
the inner part of the humerus head when the limb was bent inward. The
blade of the scapula is narrow, with the proximal end prolonged and
ending in a thick rugose mass. The anterior and posterior margins are
rugose and thickened, the great thickness of the proximal end being
due to the convergence of these thickened margins and the heavy spine.
Lastly, this thick proximal end is peculiar in having on its posterior
side a large rugose cavity, which was apparently to receive muscular
attachments.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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