A new Cretaceous bird allied to Hesperornis ; The skull and brain of Claosaurus / by O.C. Marsh.

  • Othniel Charles Marsh
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A new Cretaceous bird allied to Hesperornis ; The skull and brain of Claosaurus / by O.C. Marsh. 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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    [From the American Journal of Sciekce, Vol. XLY. January. 1.S9?..] A New Cretaceous Bird allied to Hea^ycrornis; by 0. C. Marsh. The genus llesper^ornix and its near allies have hitherto been found only in a definite horizon, the Pteranodon beds, in the Cretaceous of Kansas, and all now known have been described and figured by the writer.* Recent researches in the Cretaceous o^ Montana have brought to light another form distinct from Uesperomis^ and of smaller size, but evidently belonging to the same general group of gigantic swimming birds. A single specimen only has been found, associated with marine fossils of Fox Hills types, and certainly from a much higher horizon than that in which Hesperornis occurs. The specimen secured is represented one-half natural size in the figures below, and is a most characteristic part of the skeleton. It is the lower half of the right tibia of a fully adult bird. It shows that the tibia as a whole was very long and slender, with the shaft hollow throughout. In its general features, the specimen resembles most nearly the correspond- ing part in IlesperoDvh. The general proportions of the two are similar. Tlie cavity in the shaft of each is equally exten- sive, and is bounded by smooth, well-defined walls The ridge for the fibula is equally develojied, indicating that this bone was proportionately of ' the same length in both, and probably of the same form. * Odontornithes, 4to, Wasluugton, 1880. Am. Jour. Scl—Third Series, Vol. XLV, No. 26.5.—January. 1893