The treasury of natural history, or, A popular dictionary of zoology / by Samuel Maunder.

  • Maunder, Samuel, 1785-1849.
Date:
1870
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The treasury of natural history, or, A popular dictionary of zoology / by Samuel Maunder. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    raeteristio cnnchoidul form, and have an extremely dense texture. There appears to have been a great variety of these tertiary whales, but we have no accurate duta by which to determine their several skeletal peculiarities. BRONTOZOUM GIGAS. The name given by Prof. Hitchcock to an extinct bird, the impressions of whose feet are ex- tremely numerous in the red sandstone deposits of the valley of Connecticut. In the first instance, these appearances were made known to science under the more simple title of OrnilJiicnites giganteus. By whatever name they are called, there is every reason to believe that these struthious birds were four times the size of our living African Ostrich, and, in all probability,they closely resembled it in form, structure, and mode of living. BRYOZOA. This term is synonymous with PoLYZOA, and is employed to denote a class of mplluscous animals, the species of which were until late years invariably as- sociated with the Polyps. The Sea-mat (Flustra Joliacea) so common on our coasts, may be tuken as a type of the group, and of this zoophyte we have already given a de- scription at p. 238. The Bryozoa are polyp- like animals, forming colonies, as it were, and depending for their mutual support on the presence of numerous horny, closely- aonnected cells, the aggregate of which con- stitutes the so-called polvpidom. This 1 support or framework is usually more or less branched, someiimes in a flat leafy manner, at other times in a tubular and finely dendritic torm. The mouths of these minute creatures are surrounded by non- wontractile ciliated tentacles, and the anal opening lies in their immediate neighbour- hood. Some species occur in fresh waters, the majority being marine. The former have been carefully figured and described by Prof. Allman, F.R.S., in a publication of the Ray Society; the latter by Mr. Busk, F.R.S., in the British Museum Catalogue, and in successive numbers of the Micro- scopical. Journal. C AMPTJL A OBLONG A. The names given by Dr. Cobbold, F.L.S., to a peculiar en- tozoon found infesting the liver-ducts of the common Porpoise. This little fluke-worm is distinguished from those of the genera Distoma and Fasciola, by its possessing a zigzag-shaped alimentary canal. For fur- ther particulars see the above-mentioned author’s vniious papers in the Linnean 1 Society’s Transactions. CAPITOSAURUS. A generic name ap- plied by MUnster to a certain species of the labyrinthodont reptiles. It is the L. arena- ecus of Owen. [Sec Labykinthodon, below.] CARC1IARODON. Under this generic title are included those large extinct Sharks, 1 whose teeth verv closely resemble those of 1 the existing White Sharks. These fossil emains occur only in ft very fragmentary 1 condition, consisting for the most part of teeth and the bodies of vertebra:, all being very much water-worn. These organic d£- i bria are found in the red crag deposit* of the Suffolk coast ; and from the large size of some of the teeth, which occasionally measure as much as nix inches in longitudinal diameter, it has l»een conjectured that some of the species of this genus attained & length of no less than sixty feet. CATURIDiE. A family of extinct fishes, whose fossil remains occur abundantly in the lias formation. They were ganoids powe»«- i ing a homocercal or equally developed tail : j but the spines supporting the caudal fin were unsymmetrically developed. The family comprises a large number of genera, but none of them are represented by species now liv- ing. The North American Lepidosteus is the nearest approach. One 8|>ecies of Caturus (C- similis) is found in the chalk. CETIOSAURUS. Under this generic title Prof. Owen long ago indicated evidences of the existence of ancient crocodiles, who-e length and bulk must have been something prodigious. Their fossil remains consisting of vertebra: occur in the Oolitic and Weal- den formation, these bones being what is termed opisthoccelian. that is. having their centra or bodies convex or flat anteriorly and concave behind. For minute details the reader should consult Owen's Report on British Fossils in the British Association's volume for 1841. CETOTOLITES. Fossil whale ear-bones. [See BaljjxoDON, above.] CHCER0P0TA31US. A genus of Pachy- derm quadrupeds, founded by Cuvier on t fossil remains associated at Montmartre with those of the Palseotherium and Anoplo- therium. In the Isle of \N ight, near R> de. the Rev. D. Fox discovered some remains of this interesting animal. The quadru- ped seems to have been closely allied to the j Peccaries, at present abundant in the woods of South America. Professor Owen has shown that the structure of some of the teeth, and the form of part of the lower jaw. manifest a marked approximation to the feline type. He alludes to the occasional carnivorous propensities of our common hog, and shows that the extinct Charopoiamus was still better adapted by its dentition for predaceous habits,and “presents an interest- ing exam pie of one of those links, completing the chain of nffinities, which the revolutions of the earth’s surface have interrupted, as it were, and for a time concealed trom our view. He shows, too, that it is curious to notice that the living sub genus of the family to which the Chccroj»otnmus is most nearly allied, is an inhabitant only of South 1 America. “ where the Llama and the Tapir, the nearest living analogues of the Anoplo- therian and Palteotherian associates of the Chccropotamus now exist, and which was formerly inhabited by a genus, Hacrau- | chenia. which connects the Llama with the | Palseothere.’’ 1 CIMOLIORNTS. Tn the chalk near Maid- 1 stone, the Earl of Enniskillen found frag-^ L__