An introduction to the osteology of the Mammalia : being the substance of the course of lectures delivered at the Royal college of surgeons of England in 1870 / By William Henry Flower.

Flower, William Henry, 1831-1899.

Date:: 1870

Credit: An introduction to the osteology of the Mammalia : being the substance of the course of lectures delivered at the Royal college of surgeons of England in 1870 / By William Henry Flower. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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$suppressed, but all the other digits are well developed, and terminate in subequal, compressed, ungual phalanges of moderate size. The second and third digits are nearly equal, the fourth and fifth shorter. A sesamoid bone is developed on the dorsal side of the metacarpo-phalangeal articulations. In the true Anteaters {Myrmecophaga) all the usual carpal bones are distinct. The unciform supports the fifth, fourth, and a considerable part of the third metacarpal. The first digit is very slender, the second also slender, with com- pressed phalanges of nearly equal length. The third digit is immensely developed \ though its proximal phalanx is extremely short, its ungual phalanx is go long that the entire length of the digit exceeds that of the second. The fourth has a long and rather slender metacarpal, and three phalanges gradually diminishing in size, the ungual phalanx being very small. The fifth has the metacarpal nearly as long, but not so stout as the fourth, and followed tiy two small phalanges, the last rudimentary and conical. The little Tree Anteater (Cyclothurus didadyhis) has a remarkably modified manus. The third digit is greatly developed at the expense of all the others; it has a stout, short metacarpal, and but two phalanges, of which the most distal is large, compressed, pointed, and much curved, bearing a very strong hqok-like claw. The second digit has the same nurpber of phalanges, and bears a claw, but is very much more slender than the third. The fourth is represented only by a styliform metacarpal, and there are no traces of either the first or fifth digits of the typical manus. The pisiform is very large. In the Armadillos {Dasypodidce), the manus is stout and broad, with strongly developed ungual phalanges, adapted for digging and scratching. The fifth metacarpal articulates$