Hutton. — The Axial Skeleton in the Dinornithidce. 157 



Art. XIII. — On the Axial Skeleton in the Dinomithida. 



By Captain F. W. Hutton, F.R.S., Curator of the Canter- 

 bury Museum. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 3rd October, 



1891.] 



Sir Eichard Owen has described and figured different parts 

 of the axial skeleton in the Dinornithidae, and has distin- 

 guished what are now taken to be generic characters in the 

 sterna of Dinornis, Anomalopteryx, Meionornis (= Mesopteryx) 

 and Pachyornis.* Mr. R. Lydekker has distinguished the 

 vertebras and pelves of Dinornis and Pachyornis, and has also 

 described the pelvis in Megalapteryx and Anomalopteryx ;f and 

 Dr. Parker has, quite recently, given a full description of the 

 skull, so far as it is at present known, in all the genera. J I 

 now offer, as a further contribution to our knowledge of these 

 birds, descriptions of the vertebral column, pelvis, and ster- 

 num of Euryapteryx (= Emeus of Lydekker and Parker); the 

 vertebral column and pelvis of Meionornis (= Mesopteryx) ; 

 and some remarks on the vertebras of Megalapteryx. 



Nomenclature of the Genera. — The genus Dinornis is well 

 established, and all the species admitted into it by Mr. Lydek- 

 ker are also admitted by Dr. Parker and myself. The sub- 

 genus Tylopteryx appears to be unnecessary, for Parker has 

 shown that the figures given by Owen, and by Jaeger in the 

 palaeontology of the voyage of the " Novara," are erroneous. 

 I also abandon my attempt to resuscitate the genus Pal- 

 apteryx, as the skull in the British Museum on which it was 

 founded is said by Mr. Lydekker to be made up from the 

 calvarium of geranoides and the praernaxillae and mandibles 

 of casuarina. A pelvis from Te Aute, belonging to Mr. A. 

 Hamilton, is of the true Dinornis type, but much too small 

 for D. struthioides, and I have little doubt but that it belongs 

 to Dinornis dromioidcs. On the other hand, the pelvis in the 

 Wellington Museum, which I associated with my Palapteryx 

 plena, agrees fairly well with Mr. Lydekker's description of 

 the pelvis in Megalapteryx. I also abandon the genus Cela. 

 A part-skeleton of associated bones with the skull of curtus 

 is in the Auckland Museum, and shows that it is congeneric 

 with didinus, although differing somewhat in the sternum and 

 vertebrae, as I shall presently point out. Dinornis owcni is 



* Trans. Zool. Soc. of London, passim, and Ext. Birds of N.Z. 

 t " Catalogue of the Fossil Birds in the British Museum," 1891. 

 J Trans. Zool. Soc. of London, vol. xiii. 



