On Euskelesaurus brownii (Huxley) / by H.G. Seeley.

  • Harry Govier Seeley
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On Euskelesaurus brownii (Huxley) / by H.G. Seeley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    17/26 page 331
    imperfectly preserved, as though there had been anchylosis •with the anterior margin of the fibula; six inches below the ])roximal end the shaft is ovate in section, 5 inches from back to front, 3^ inches from side to side. Hence the expan- sion of the proximal end is small, and the cnemial crest is not much developed ; so that, although the proximal surface is stout and wide, it does not differ materially from Masso- spondylus, Agrosaurus, &c., and makes no approach to the expanded tibia in Zanclodon, seen in the skeleton described by Plieninger. The fibula has a front to back measurement of 5^ inches at the proximal end ; its external surface is convex, being 2^ inches thick in the middle and thinning to the lateral margins. The internal surface is flattened on the posterior aspect, and the anterior margin is slightly expanded, as thougli a film from the tibia might be adhering to it. It rapidly diminishes in size, for at 3 inches from the proximal end the transverse measurement is 1^ inch and the back to front measurement is 3 inches. The anterior and posterior margins are concave in length and convex from side to side. Considered as a whole these bones are robust and charac- terized by the fibula being expanded at both ends, so as to be as deep as the tibial surface, with which it is in contact. The form of the distal end of the bone separates the tibia widely from all genera with an ascending astragalus or co- ossitied intermedium. It seems a somewhat more primitive type than Ornithotarsus. I regard the cranial and pelvic evidence as supporting the conclusion that characters in which this region of the skeleton of Euskelesaurus diverges from Zanclodon are due to persis- tence rather than modification of those parts of the bones which are most liable to vary. The Hind Foot. M. Fischer figured {1. c. pi. x. fig. 6) a mass of bones which I regard as the distal row of the tarsus. It shows three bones in close contact, and there is a broken portion of a metatarsal in connexion with the mass. Seen from the front the transverse measurement is 6 inches and the vertical measurement of the middle bone is inches. This is narrow in proportion to the width of the tibia, but not quite con- clusive as to whether four or five digits were developed. The proximal convex surface corresponds to the concavity below the astragalus. Of the digits, M. Fischer described two imperfect phalanges and a more imperfect terminal claw-phalange.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3