The marine mammals in the Anatomical Museum of the University of Edinburgh / by Sir Wm. Turner.

  • William Turner
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The marine mammals in the Anatomical Museum of the University of Edinburgh / by Sir Wm. Turner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of the preparations made by Professor Joliii Cioodsir liave been taken from a manuscript catalogue written under Ids supervision. In drawing up the description of those added by myself I have, as with the bones, made use of my printed papers and of notes not previously published. In selecting from the extensive literature of the subject generic and specific names for the Cetacea, Sir Win. H. Flower’s Catalogue of the specimens in the British Museum, 1885, has been taken as the guide. His classification of all the Baleen Whales in a single family Balaenidm has not, however, been adopted, as the structural characters which collectively distinguish the Right Whales from the Rorquals are so numerous and important as to justify a division into the two families BahTenidcU and Balaenopteridae. In the classification of the Pinnipedia the generic and specific divisions adopted in my Challenger Re]Jort, 1887, on these mammals have been followed in the Catalogue. The description of the specimens in each part, for each family, genus, and species respectively, has been preceded by a brief statement of the distinguishing characters, so that the Catalogue can be used by the student as a hand- book or guide in discriminating the families, genera, and species to which they belong. The illustrations are in some cases from the blocks em- ployed in my published memoirs referred to in the text, but the majority have been specially prepared for the Catalogue, either from photographs or from original drawings of the objects. I wish particularly to thank Mr Ernest J. Henderson, the Assistant Conservator, for many photographs, especially those of the skeletons suspended in the Museum reproduced in Plates I., V., VI., and for the help which he has given in making the measurements detailed in the Catalogue. To Mr James T. Murray I am indebted for many careful drawings, more especially of the series of tympanic bones, which will be of service in the study of their modifications in form in the