Plagiostomata of the Pacific. Pt. I. Fam. Heterodontidae / by N. de Miklouho-Maclay and William Macleay.
- Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay
- Date:
- [1878]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Plagiostomata of the Pacific. Pt. I. Fam. Heterodontidae / by N. de Miklouho-Maclay and William Macleay. 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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![which, in the large posterior teeth, is represented by a slightly elevated longitudinal line.* This longitudinal line is more or less distinctly visible in H. Phillipi, according to the individual. Now, if we suppose this median longitudinal line on the pos- terior teeth developed into the form of a cutting edge or crest, we obtain some idea of the chief peculiarity of the dentition of H. galeatus. The figures 30 and 31 are accurately drawn, with the aid of compasses, from a shrivelled, and not quite perfect pair of jaws preserved (labelled only with the name of the locality—Broken Bay) in the Macleay-Museum. As the jaws are in the meantime preserved in the Museum as “ unique,” I have been unable to use them to obtain a transverse section of the large teeth. The only perfect specimen of H. galeatus in Sydney at present is one in the Australian Museum, and as it is a stuffed specimen, one could merely see the anterior teeth, and only with some trouble get a glimpse of the crest of the posterior teeth. Mr. E. P. Ramsay had the kindness (for which I here express my gra- titude) at my request to order the jaws to be taken out from the stuffed specimen. The stuffed museum-specimen has been in no wise injured by this, and the museum has thereby acquired a valuable anatomical preparation. Both jaws are in excellent preservation ; and I am thus placed in a position to give a more complete description of the teeth** than I could otherwise have given. I do so chiefly because the form of the teeth of H. galeatus, so far as I am aware, has not yet been described.*** * “ C6te longitudinal,” of Agassiz. Poissons fossiles. Tome III., page 83. ** I regret that I have only received this second jaw of H. galeatus after all the plates for this paper were prepared, so that I could not exchange figures 30 and 31, which only shew a part of the jaws, for a complete drawing of the well-preserved preparation in the Australian Museum. But although figs. 31 and 32 only shew a single horizontal row of teeth (the jaws from which the drawings were taken not being perfect), yet they give a correct notion of the form of the sequence of the rows, and of the number of the teeth (in a horizontal row). The curve of the row (figs. 30 and 31) is, however, only approxi- mately correct; the preparation, which served as the original of my sketch, was so un- symmetrically shrivelled up that it permitted me to copy only the form of the teeth and the arrangement of the rows, and not the shape of the jaws. *** In the description of H. galeatus by Dr. GUnther (Catalogue of Fishes, vol. I-, p. 416) there is nothing said about the teeth. [20]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22367913_0022.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
