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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![is Hyperoodon rostratus, of which are exhibited a complete skeleton of an adult female, taken at Whitstable, Kent, in 1860, and the skull of a very old male from the Orkneys, in wliich the bony crests, rising on each side from the uj)per jaw, have attained such an extraordinary development, that it was long supposed to be the type of a distinct species, called H. latifrons. It has, however, now been shown, that while in the young of both sexes the crests are quite small, in the female they remain permanently of the size shown in the skeleton, and in the male they gradually increase as age advances. This animal is an inhabitant of the northern parts of the Atlantic Ocean; and as it yields both spermaceti and oil, equal in value to that of the Sperm-Whale, it is now the object of a regular “ fishery.^^ The southern representative of this species (H. planifrons) is as yet only known from the water-worn and rolled skull from Western Australia exhibited near the northern specimens, and the extent of its range still remains to be discovered. Family Platanistid^e. On the left side of the door, near the first window, is a Case containing a stuffed specimen, skeleton, and several skulls of the very curious freshwater Dolphin of the rivers of India [Platanista gangetica). It has never been found in the open sea, but is exten- sively distributed throughout nearly the whole of the river-systems, not only of the Ganges, but of the Ilrahmaputra and Indus, ascending as high as there is water enough to swim in. The eyes are exceedingly small and imperfect in structure, and it appears to be quite blind. It feeds on small fish and Crustacea, which it gropes for with its long snout in the muddy water at the bottom of the rivers. The blowhole, as may be seen in the stuffed spe- cimen, is a single slit, placed lengthwise, and not transverse to the head as in most Dol])hins, and tlie dorsal fin is merely a low ridge. The skull has a very remarkable form, having on the upper surface a pair of large, compressed, bony crests, which overarch the aper- ture of the nostrils and base of the rostrum, and nearly meet in the middle line above. The upper and lower jaws arc exceedingly long and narrow, and armed with numerous slender, pointed teeth, which undergo some curious changes of form as life advances.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28122574_0124.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
