168 XOTES ON A FOSSIL WHALE, 



R.S. TAS. 



distinct finds of fossil cetacean remains recorded in the cata- 

 logue of the British Museum (4) the several parts of the 

 skeletons thus preserved are as follows :— Vertebrae, l-ld ; 

 tympaaics, 62 ; perotics, 8 ; skulls, 47 ; jaws, 9 ; teeth, 55 ; 

 humeri, 6 ; radii, 4 ; ulnj©, 4 ; ribs, 6 ; scapula, 1. 



It will thus be obvious that the discovery of the arm^ 

 bones of the Table Cape whale, without any fragments of 

 the skull for collateral evidence, renders the problem un- 

 usually complicated, even when a large comparative collection 

 is available for study, and doubly so in the absence of such. 

 Lastly, in this connection it must be said that the cetacean 

 that left its remains in the Table Cape rocks was an imma- 

 ture animal, and as the skeletal variations due to immaturity, 

 sex, and individuality are enormous — even among existing 

 ^vhales—the problen/is still further complicated. 



In some whales the epiphyses of the vertebrae, and even 

 the limbs, never completely ankylose, while in other genera 

 they ankylose to extinction. The bones available, in the 

 case of tlie present fossil, consist of parts of one arm, some 

 vertebrae and ribs, with various vertebral epiphyses, all of 

 which, in point of size, approximately agree with a fully 

 grown dolphin of the genus Tursiops. But, as will be shown 

 preseatlv, these bones could not have been derived from any 

 dolphin of the genera Delphuiiis^Tursiops, or Globiocephalus. 



Taking the arm bones first, as being of the greatest im- 

 ])ortance'^ I propose to compare their epiphyses with those of 

 a common dolphin (D. delphis) dissected by me in August, 

 1903. This was an immature male, of a total length of 

 6 feet 5 inches, as against 8 feet 1 inch for an adult of the 

 same species, also similarly dissected. 



Immature Dolphin. 

 Humerus-all epiphyses anky- 

 losed. 



Mature Dolphin. 



Humerus--all epiphyses anky- 

 losed to extinction. 



Eadius and Ulna — all epiphy- 

 ses ankylosed to extinction. 



Metacarpals — epiphjses all 

 ankylosed. 



All vertebral epiphyses anky- 

 losed to extinction. 



Sternum — all segments anky- 

 losed, thus presenting a 

 single solid piece of bone. 



Radius and Ulna— proximal 

 epiphyses ankylosed to ex- 

 tinction, distal epiphyses 

 still open. 



Metacarpals proximal, epi- 

 physes still open. 



Vertebral epiphyses still 

 open. 



Sternum— in three pieces, 

 viz., manubrium, gladiolus, 

 and ziphioid. 



(4) With the exception of the ziphioids, this total does not include the smaller 

 toothed whales, whose congeners still exist in our seas. 



