Contributions to avian paleontology / by R.W. Shufeldt.

  • Robert Wilson Shufeldt
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Contributions to avian paleontology / by R.W. Shufeldt. 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.

    11/16 page 35
    Vo] VVY-l 1913 J Shufeldt, Contributions to Avian Paleontology. 35 Meleagris g. silvestris, it is to be discovered at once that the com- parable characters by no means agree. In the existing species of turkey, there is but a single median groove marking the hypotarsus posteriorly. In Marsh’s M. celer, the hypotarsus of this tarso-metatarsus is thus twice longitudinally grooved. In M. g. silvestris, there is a pronounced ridge of bone extending some distance down the shaft, it being the continuation of the thickened, inner border of the hypotarsus. In the case of the fossil fragment here being considered, this ridge is only indicated, and, if it were ever present at all, it is here broken off and missing. It is a dangerous practice to describe parts and characters in fossil bones that are not present there. Again, in the case of this fossil fragment, its general appearance dr facies is quite unlike the corresponding part of the tarso-meta- tarsus in M. g. silvestris, or that of any other existing wild turkey.. Indeed, off-hand I would say that it never came from the skeleton: of any meleagrine fowl at all,— existing or extinct. And, as in the case of the alleged M. antiqua, it may have belonged to the skeleton of the tarsus of some other kind of a galline fowl — not a meleagrine one — while it is quite as likely to have belonged to the skeleton of some heron (Ardea) or other large wader as it did. to a turkey. For example, in some of the herons “the hypotarsus of the tarso-metatarsus is 3-crested, graduated in size, the outer being the smaller; the tendinal grooves pass between them.” 1 It has just been pointed out in the last paragraph that the hypo- tarsus of the tarso-metatarsus in Marsh’s Meleagris celer is 3- crested, and the tendinal grooves pass between these crests, as in certain Herons. Mind you, I am not saying that Marsh had the bone of an extinct heron before him; but this is a significant fact, especially when we find, in the case of M. g. silvestris, the hypo- tarsus of the tarso-metatarsus is but 2-crested, having the median groove passing between them. From fossil material to positively establish an extinct species of Meleagris, one should have at least a sufficient part of the 1 Shufeldt, R. W. Osteological Studies of the Subfamily Ardeinae Journ. Comp.
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