170 notrf; ox a fossil whale, 



E.S. TAS. 



Expressed in another form we get :- 



This information assists ns in our search, since the humerus 

 is the longest bone in the arms of cachalots and platan ists, 

 but shorter in whalebone whales, Z//^/////^", IIyperoodo7i, Grampus^ 

 and all dolphins. Wo can eliminate the cachalot and the 

 ])latanistid. Again, we can, with the osteological data avail- 

 able, immediately cut out Delphinns, Tursiops, and Glohioce- 

 pJialus, since the shafts of both bones of the lower arm in 

 the fossil are of equal diameter, and not as much flattened as 

 in the dolphin group, where also the radius exceeds the ulna 

 in width. Geologically, it may be added, that the largest 

 members of the dolphin group, viz., Orca and Pseudorca, are 

 unknown earlier than the newer pliocene, and since our fossil 

 is (with all caution exercised in the act of presumption) 

 older than that, our field is practically rid of the modern dol- 

 phin group altogether. We have next to consider the whale- 

 bone whales, and the ancient, though still lingering, group of 

 ziphioid cetaceans, which, according to Prof. Flower, are 

 " the survivors of an archaic frimily that once played a far 

 more important part than now among the cetacean inhabi- 

 tants of the ocean." These latter were apparently fairly 

 numerous in the miocene oceans of Australia, and their re- 

 mains were recorded by Prof. McCoy from Geelong. 



In the right whale (Balcena mysticetus) the radius and ulna 

 vastly exceed the humerus in length, in fact in about the 

 ratio of eight to five. The rorqual is somewhat similar in 

 this respect, although the r.itios may not be quite so high. 

 Influenced by these facts, I am tempted to discount the 

 possibility of the fossil whale having any affinities with the 

 whalebone whales, for even in the young of these animals 

 the brachial and anti-brachial measurements would mani- 

 fest the ratios of maturity. If, therefore, we are not dealing 

 with an absolutely new whale altogether, its affinities by the 

 above chain of reasoning should be with the ziphioid cetacean 

 group, and it now remains for us to see what osteological 

 evidence supports this conclusion. 



The first thing that strikes an observer is the disproportion 

 between the size of the arm and the ribs, for while the arm 

 suggests a whale larger than Tursiops, the ribs are interme- 

 diate between that animal and the common dolphin of eight 

 feet in length. 



