i 4 2 A BOOK OF WHALES 



Museum show certain differences which may be 

 specific, if they are not sexual. It is from an 

 examination of those two skeletons that the following- 

 notes have been drawn up.* 



Neobalana has a very short vertebral column, the 

 total number of vertebrae being only forty-three. 

 The complete fusion of the cervicals allies the 

 genus to the Right whales. The most note- 

 worthy point that I observed concerning the dorsal 

 vertebrae was the fact that the first dorsal apparently 

 bears no rib. As this was the case in both specimens 

 it seems unlikely that it has dropped off. The 

 number of the dorsal vertebrae is therefore one in 

 excess of the number of ribs. This number was not 

 constant in the two specimens ; the larger had 

 eighteen, the smaller whale seventeen dorsal vertebrae. 

 In any case Neobal&na has more dorsals than any 

 other Cetacean. It has also fewer lumbars ; there 

 are two in one and one in the smaller specimen. 

 The only other Cetacean in which anything like so 

 small a series of lumbars occurs is Inia (see p. 297), 

 and there the number is three. 



The ribs of this Cetacean are remarkable for many 

 reasons. Their number (seventeen) is in excess of 

 that known elsewhere. In one specimen, it is true, 

 there are but sixteen a number which occurs in the 

 largest whalebone whale Balcenoptera sibbaldii. As 

 already observed, the first rib is attached to the 



The principal osteological features are also noted in FLOWER and 

 LYDEKKER'S Mammals, Recent and Extinct. A more detailed account 

 by HECTOR, Trans. New Zeal. Inst., 1875, P- 2 5 r - 



