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.

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    attachment to a subvertebral ossification. The margin of the posterior surface is broken away j but it is evident that the base was deeply concave from front to back and convex from side to side. The anterior half of the side of the centrum is occupied by t wo large articular facets for the rib. Into the upper facet the base of the neural arch appears to enter; it is vertically ovate, about 1^ inch deep and | inch wide; but the articular surface is broken ; it is separated from the inferior facet by an interval of inch. This facet is about an inch wide and nearly IJ inch deep, subtriangular in form; it is margined by an elevated rim, except in front, and is slightly concave. These articulations are closer together than in Megalosaurus, and less elevated from the side of the centrum. The neural arch is strong and extends the entire width of the centrum. The neurapophyses have a broad base of nearly 4 inches, and almost meet in the median line. They are thick and enclose a neural canal about \ inch high and f inch wide, wider above than below, and deeper apparently behind than in front, where the base of the canal excavates the centrum. The neurapophyses expand transversely and ante- riorly in two zygapophyses, which are inclined a little forward. The articular facets are almost flat, ovate, inclined to each other at about an angle of 50°, as in Megalosaurus ; separated by a median interval of about half an inch, without any notch between them, being scarcely raised above the adjacent bone. Each measures rather less than 2 inches from within outward and about 1 inch transversely. Laterally there is a convex inflation below the outer border of the zygapophysis. The least transverse measurement over the concave lateral contour of the neurapophyses at the neural canal is 2^ inches, and the transverse measurement over the zygapophyses exceeds inches. The vertical height from the base of the centrum to the base of the zygapophysial facet is 5;]^ inches, and to the summit of the facets 6^ inches. In general character the vertebra most resembles the cervical of Megalosaurus, but is much shorter in proportion to its depth, indicating, if correctly referred, that Euskelesaurus was a short-necked type, different from the long-necked Massospondylus, which resembles Zandodon. This fact is the more interesting since the forms of the pubic bones are so similar in these two South-African genera that, had this cervical vertebra been unknown, its Megalosauroid shortness could not have been suspected.
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