The zoology of the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle [vol. 1 of 5] : $b Fossil mammaliaOwen, Richard
Science
The zoology of the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle [vol. 1 of 5] : $b Fossil mammalia
Owen, Richard
Beagle Expedition (1831-1836); Mammals, Fossil; Paleontology -- South America; Zoology
The brain, being regulated in its development by laws analogous to those
which govern the early perfection of the organ of hearing, appears to
have been relatively larger in the Scelidothere than in the Glossothere:
it was certainly relatively longer; the fractured cranium gives us six
inches of the antero-posterior diameter of the brain, but the analogy of
the Orycterope would lead to the inference that it extended further into
the part which is broken away. The greatest transverse diameter of the
cranial cavity is four inches eight lines: these dimensions, however,
are sufficient to show that the brain was of very small relative size in
the Scelidothere; and, both in this respect, and in the relative
position of its principal masses, the brain of the extinct Edental
closely accords with the general character of this organ in the existing
species of the same Order. We perceive by the obtuse ridge continued
obliquely upwards from above the upper edge of the petrous bone, that
the cerebellum has been situated wholly behind the cerebrum, we learn
also from the same structure of the enduring parts that these perishable
masses were not divided, as in the Manis, by a bony septum, but by a
membranous tentorium, as in the Glossothere and Armadillos: in the
Orycteropus, as has been before remarked, there is a strong, sharp, bony
ridge extending into each side of the tentorium. The vertical diameter
of the cerebellum and medulla oblongata equals that of the cerebrum, and
is two inches three lines: the transverse diameter of the cerebellum was
about three inches nine lines; its antero-posterior extent about one
inch and a half. The sculpturing of the internal surface of the cranial
cavity bespeaks the high vascularity of the soft parts which it
contained, and there are evident indications that the upper and lateral
surfaces of the brain had been disposed in a few simple parallel
longitudinal convolutions. The two anterior condyloid foramina (_m_)
have the same relative position as the single corresponding foramen in
the Glossothere, Orycterope, and Armadillos, and the inner surface of
the skull slopes outwards from these foramina to the inner margin of the
occipital condyle.
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