On the bone in Crocodilia which is commonly regarded as the os pubis, and its representative among the extinct Reptilia / by H.G. Seeley.

  • Seeley, H. G. (Harry Govier), 1839-1909.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the bone in Crocodilia which is commonly regarded as the os pubis, and its representative among the extinct Reptilia / by H.G. Seeley. 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.

    9/11 (page 240)
    Prof. H. G. Seeley. [Dec. 8, ? Pre-pubic bones of Iguanodon, restored from No. 2218, Brit. Mus. bones of the crocodile. Professor Huxley* figured the ventral aspect of a Crocod'ilus acutus at about the close of embryonic life, in ■which a considerable fibrous development was found anterior to each pre-pubic bone. This condition varies with age. In a large adult crocodile from Abyssinia, in the British Museum, the fibro-cartilages anterior to the pre-pubic bones are united in the mesial line, ante- riorly, so as to form one mass. A similar condition is seen in younger specimens. And if such a structure were sufficiently ossified to be preserved in a fossil state, it would closely reproduce the form of the anterior portion of Mr. Beckles’ fossil, while the marks of lateral attachment in this part of the fossil correspond with the grooves for the last pair of abdominal ribs. Therefore I regard this specimen as probably representing in the Iguanodon the pre-pubic bones of crocodiles, as well as the cartilage connecting them with the ribs, which Huxley terms the epi-pubis. On its mode of attachment to the pubis I offer no suggestion, and there is no evidence available. But since the bone in crocodiles and Omithosaurs is attached in the region of the pectineal process, it is probable that it is connected with the extension of the pectineal process in Dinosaurs, which Pro- fessor 0. C. Marsh has named the pre-pubis, and I would bring the pubic bone in the Ornithischia into harmony with the process in Crocodiles by suggesting that the distal part of the bone, like the anterior process, is entirely absent, so that only the sub-acetabular part, which supports the pre-pubis remains in crocodiles; and I suppose that if the pubis had been prolonged distally in the crocodile, it might have included the foramen for the obturator nerve. If this interpretation of Dr. Mantell’s undetermined bone should be sustained, it would contribute a new and distinctive element to the Iguanodont pelvis, as remarkable as the pubic modification in an Ornithosaur or Ci’ocodilian, and distinct from either. The evidence from the fossil allies of crocodiles by no means demonstrates the nature of what 1 have termed the pre-pubic bones, though it shows that pre-pubic ossifications exist which cannot be confounded with the pubis, which may resemble the Crocodilian bone in form and in * ' Roy. Soc. Proc.,’ vol. 28, PI. 8.