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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![filled with oil. In the vertebral column the region of the neck is remarkably short and inca])able of motion, and the vertebrae, originally seven in number, as in other mammals, are in many species more or less fused together into a solid mass. None of the hinder vertebrae of the body are united together to form a “ sacrum or to join the pelvis, as in mammals in which the hind limbs are fully developed. The lumbar and caudal vertebrae are numerous and large, and capable of very free motion in all direc- tions. Beneath the latter are large chevron bones which pro- ject downwards, and give increased surface for the attachment of the powerful muscles that move the tail. There are no bones sup- porting the lateral “ flukes ” of the tail or the dorsal fin. The skull is modified in a peeuliar manner. The brain-case is short, high, and broad, almost spherical in fact. The nostrils open upwards, immediately in front of the brain-case, and before them is a more or less horizontally prolonged beak or rostrum,ex- tending forwards to form the upper jaw or roof of the mouth. In detail the form of the skull varies much in different groups. There are no collar-bones or clavicles. The upper arm-bone or humerus is freely movable on the scapula or blade-bone at the shoulder-joint; but beyond this the articulations of the limb are imperfect, flattened ends of the bones coming in contact with each other, with fibrous tissue interposed, allowing of scarcely any motion. The two bones of the forearm (the radius and ulna) are distinct and very much flattened, as are all the bones of the hand. There are usually five fingers, though sometimes the first, or that which corresponds to the thumb of man, is wanting. The pelvis or hip-bone is represented by a pair of elongated slender bones, suspended below, and at some distance, from the vertebral eolumn, in the region of the loins. As these bones are in the living animal concealed in the flesh and not connected with the spinal column, they are olten lost in preparing the skeletons, and hence are absent in many of the sj)ecimeus in the Gallery. To the outer side of these, in some AVhales, small bones are attached which represent the bones of the limb proper. In the great skeleton of the Rorqual (Balcenopiei'a mysciihis), at the further end of the Gallery, a little nodule of bone, scarcely larger than a walnut, has been fortunately preserved. It is the rudiment of the thigh-bone](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28122574_0118.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
