Some account of the fossil remains of an animal more nearly allied to fishes than any of the other classes of animals / by Sir Everard Home.

  • Home, Everard, Sir, 1756-1832.
Date:
1814
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some account of the fossil remains of an animal more nearly allied to fishes than any of the other classes of animals / by Sir Everard Home. 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.

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    fossil Remains of an Animal. 5 The head is four feet long, and all the parts of one side of the skull, and of the upper and under jaw, are very distinct: the vertebrse immediately behind the skull remain in their natural situation respecting the head ; many of the other bones have been displaced in a greater or less degree, shewing that the skeleton, before the bones were rendered fossil, had been pressed upon by a considerable weight, which had broken many of them, and entirely destroyed others. The lower jaw had been forced a little backwards, and the intermediate bone, by which it was attached to the skull, dis- placed ; but a portion of it is seen projecting beyond the base of the lower jaw. The bony sclerotic coat of the eye on one side is entire; that of the other is forced through the nose, and a part of it is seen in the opening of the nostril, which is enlarged by the bones in which it is situated being broken. The vertebras of the back have been twisted, and their spi- nous processes broken off; one of them in a detached state is preserved sufficiently entire to shew its shape, and the size of the canal which contained the spinal marrow. The anterior surfaces of the dorsal vertebrae are exposed, and several of the ribs of the opposite side remain in their place, connected to the vertebras, with their concave surfaces upper- most. Those of the other side are all forced down upon the vertebrae, and squeezed into a mass: the pressure has been so great, as to give many of them a fluted appearance, the middle line being more crushed than the edges; they are not only in close contact with the vertebrae, but are made to follow all the irregularities of their surface, so forcibly have they been beaten in upon them.