Guide to the galleries of mammalia (mammalian, osteological, cetacean) in the Department of Zoology of the British Museum (Natural History).
- British Museum (Natural History). Department of Zoology.
- Date:
- 1892
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Guide to the galleries of mammalia (mammalian, osteological, cetacean) in the Department of Zoology of the British Museum (Natural History). Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![pair of anterior flippers, which they have the power of moving in all directions, no posterior limbs, but broad flattened tails, placed, like those of the Whales, horizontally and not vertically as in fish; skin thick and nearly hairless; only the lips are covered with stifi* bristles. Their bones generally are extremely dense, massive, and heavy, especially the ribs; of the posterior pair of limbs only two rudi- mentary pelvic bones remain, but no trace of true limb-bones. The anterior caudal vertebrae have well-marked chevron-bones, and in one genus [Manatus) there are only six cervical vertebrae, thus forming one of the very few exceptions to the general Mam- malian number of seven. The fore limbs are developed into flat flippers, not showing externally any trace of fingers. The skull is of a very peculiar shape and structure, the anterior part of both jaws being bent downwards nearly vertically. The molars are either absent, or very simple square teeth with transverse ridges, suitable for chewing water-weeds and other vegetable sub- stances. The nasal opening, as in the Elephants, is placed very far back on the upper surface. The Sirenia consist of three genera, one of which is generally believed to have been recently exterminated :— (1) Manatus, the Manatees, with eleven molars on each side, of which about six are present at any one time; snout but little bent downwards ; tail depressed and rounded, its posterior edge forming a semicircle; rudimentary nails on the flippers. The Manatees, so called from their using their flippers to a slight extent as hands {manus), are natives of the rivers and shores of Eastern America and Western Africa within the tropics, never straying far out to sea, but yet quite unable to go on to the land itself, their whole lives being passed in the water. There are said to be three species of Manatee, namely:—the African Manatee (M. senegalensis) ; and two American, the Florida and South- American species [M. latirostris and americanus), Stuffed specimens and skeletons of Manatus senegalensis and americanus are placed in the Saloon, and several skulls in Case 23, Div. B. (2) Halicore, the Dugongs, with two tusk-like incisors, and five or six molars on each side; snout bent nearly vertically downwards; no nails on the flippers; tail broad, with the poste- [Case 23.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28122574_0107.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
