The skeleton in the flying lemurs, Galeopteridae / by R.W. Shufeldt.

  • Robert Wilson Shufeldt
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The skeleton in the flying lemurs, Galeopteridae / 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.

    39/72 (page 187)
    Smooth and quite level, the subscapular fossa on the venter of the bone exhibits hardly any muscular ridges, the only one of any prominence being a mere indication of such extending from the neck to a mid-point on the vertebral border. Even this may be absent from some specimens. The coracoid process is represented by a straight, somewhat flattened rod of bone, that may attain a length of nearly 1.5 centimeters. It is extensively attached to a raised base or pedicle at the junction of its inner and middle thirds. This gives rise to a long and a short process, the first assisting in the formation of the articulation for the humerus, and the inner and shorter one for ligamentous attachment. Its long- itudinal axis makes an angle with the long axis of the acromion process of about 60°, and an angle of about one-half as many degrees with the plane of the scapular blade. Thus it will be seen that the coracoid is not bifurcated as stated by Flower but simply produced both ways from its base, in the same straight line. Very conspicuously developed, the spine on the dorsum of the scajiula commences superiorly or, perhaps, what may be called externally, beyond the glenoid cavity. Here it supports a large acromion process and a metacromion; this is followed by a somewhat flattened pedicle to the scapular neck, and from there on it becomes a thin lamina of bone which gradually slopes away to a point near the middle of the vertebral border. This osseous partition creates the supraspinous and infraspinous fossae, which are thus thoroughly defined. The latter is about twice the size of the former, and lengthwise is bounded by the aforesaid spine on the one hand and by the raised axillary, described above, on the other. The scapida makes the usual articulations with the liumerus and clavicle, and lias attached to it, either by origin or insertion, a number of important muscles and ligaments. THE PELVIS. Beyond a few unimportant individual variations, the pelves (Plate III, figure 8; Plate IV, figure 14, and Plate V, figure 17) of the three specimens of Cy?iocep]iahis at hand present the same characters for description. On the other hand this part of the skeleton differs widely in its morphology among the Insectivora as a group, being long in some, short in others, while in such genera as So7-ex, Tcdpa, and Chrysochloris a wide interval separates the pubic bones at the mesial line below, where they usually unite. When submitted to ordinary maceration in water the two ossa in- nominata readily part company with the sacrum and with each other. I’his happened in the case of the Steere specimen here shown in figures 8 and 14. One of the most striking features of the pelvis in Cynoceplialus