The origin of the vertebrate skeleton / by Harry G. Seeley.
- Harry Govier Seeley
- Date:
- 1872
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The origin of the vertebrate skeleton / by Harry 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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![f From the Annals and Magazine of Natural History for April 1872.] The Origin of the Vertebrate Skeleton*. By Harry G. Seeley, St. John’s College, Cambridge. § 1. The Problem of Osteology. The facts of comparative osteology are the growth of similar constituent bones of skeletons to different extent and in dif- ferent directions in the several groups of vertebrate animals. Hence to the palaeontologist the discovery of new types of life in the strata usually means a new and limited growth of a few elements of the skeleton in definite directions. These pecu- liarities of growth give the skeletons which they characterize a plan of structure which differs from that of other animals ; and therefore that plan becomes comparable with the plans of growth which distinguish the several known groups. The multitudinous array of species is so reduced to a few factors; and these limiting facts enable the student to investigate and discover the relation of one animal to the remainder, and of all animals to each other, in a manner not dissimilar and with similar success to the way by which meridians of longi- tude and parallels of latitude localize geographical districts. The biological problem admits of infinite complication, from the skeleton being composed of many different bones, each of which has its definite form, which may vary a little in every species of the group. And though a few general plans may accurately be spoken of as limiting and comprising this vast difference of detail, yet there is no plan except that which is manifested in each and all of the individuals forming the species which the group includes. And if it be necessary, as it is, to see howc losely one plan of structure approximates to other plans, or how it differs from them, such a result can only be attained by comparing and contrasting individuals which manifest the kind of growth which is named the plan of the group. Here comparative osteology offers for investigation the subject of growth of bone. And if a sufficient elucidation of that question can be given, less difficulty will be experienced in understanding the nature of the special growths in specified directions which give a common plan to each of the several zoological groups of Vertebrata named orders. The skeleton, however, is but a degraded portion of the organism ; and, in the kinds of animals which inhabit the world now, the functions of the several bones are often known, as well as the nature and modifications of the soft structures, * Being an introductory chapter from the Author’s MS. ‘ Osteology of the Reptifia.’](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2241244x_0005.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
