The muscles of the fore and hind limbs in Dasypus sexcinctus / by John Charles Galton.

  • Galton, John Charles.
Date:
[1868]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The muscles of the fore and hind limbs in Dasypus sexcinctus / by John Charles Galton. 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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    The Muscles of the Fore and Hind Limbs m Dasypus sexcinctus. By John Chahles Gaeton, Hsq.^ M.A., Exeter College^ Oxford. S Bead June 4th, 1868. (Plate XLIV.) PeOPESSOR EOLLESTON, E.E.S., my friend and former instructor, having, in the early part of the present year, placed at my disposal, and afforded me every facility for dissecting in the University Museum at Oxford, a specimen of the Six-banded Armadillo {Dasypus sexcinctus), I now beg leave to lay before the Society the results of my investigations. Through the courtesy of W. H. Elower, Esq., E.E.S., Conservator of the Museum of the Eoyal College of Surgeons, I have been enabled to check and confirm my observa- tions by the examination of a male specimen of a seye#-banded variety^ of the species which forms the subject of the present communication. The left side only, however, of this specimen was available for my purpose. The Oxford specimen was also a male, which had been procured from a travelling menagerie, and had been placed in spirit in May 1866. Its weight was 5 lb. 3 oz., and the principal measurements were as follows :— From tip of snout to extremity of tail 22^- in.; from tip of snout to posterior border of pelvic shield 16 in.; from posterior border of pelvic shield to extremity of tail 6f in.; from anus to extremity of tail 7^ in.; from tip of snout to posterior border of frontal shield in.; length of ear nearly 1^ in. The specimen belonging to the College of Surgeons was very slightly smaller. * Tiiis specimen must be regarded, apart from a striking superficial resemblance, as belonging to the genus Dasypus, since it had five toes on both fore and hind feet, a prominent heel, together with evidence of a plantigrade gait, ears placed far apart, a series of small shields under the eye, and a depressed body. As the specimen was not in the condition of a skeleton, I could not with certainty determine the presence or absence of the intermaxillary tooth, so characteristic of the genus Dasypus. The placing of the animal in the digitigrade genus Tatusia (the only other alternative) was out of the question. (See Dr. Gray on the “ Genera and Species of Entomophagous Edentata,” Proc. Zool. Soc. 1865, p. 370 et seq.) In Dasypus encouhert (Desm.), D. 6-cinctus (Linn.), “ the number of moveable bands varies from seven to eight, according to the individual.” (Art. Akmadillo, Cyclopaedia of Natural History, vol. i. London, 1856.) Azara, moreover, mentions a female of this species which had seven bands. (This specimen was of the same size as another female, which possessed but the ordinary number of six hands.) He proceeds to say “ J’ai vu d’autres exemples de tout ce que je cite ici; d’ou il resulte que les bandes varient de six a sept, et peut-etre les nouveaux- nes n’en ont-ils que cinq.” (Essais sur THistoire NatureUe de Quadrupedes de la Province du Paraguay, par Don Felix D’Azara—traduits sur le Manuscrit inedit de I’Auteur, par Moreau Saint-Mery. Paris, 1801. Vol. ii. pp. 148-9.) Since the first part of this note was written, I have seen, among the collection of stuffed specimens of Bruta pre- served in the British Museum, one presenting all the external characteristics of, and, moreover, labelled as, Dasypus sexcinctus, which had seven, well-marked, dorsal bands. 4 D VOL. XXVI.