4iy 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



scarce specie;?, and was iu itself worth the 

 expense of the expedition. But he Avas also 

 so fortunate as to discover a practically 

 complete skeleton of this giant bird, whicli 

 previously had been known only from the 

 fragments above mentioned. 



The skeleton is of gigantic size, equaling 

 all but the largest of the extinct moas of 

 New Zealand, and much exceeding any mod- 



Reconstructed skeleton of Diatrijma steini. 

 The missing portions are dotted 



ern bird in bulk. It is also of very extraor- 

 dinary and striking proportions, with a huge 

 head and massive neck, quite unlike any 

 existing bird, and Avith an enormous high 

 compressed beak. These proportions at once 

 suggested that it was a relative or ancestor 

 of those extinct giant birds of South Amer- 

 ica, Pliororhachos and its allies, which it 

 resembles in size and general proportions and 

 especially in the great beak. A more careful 

 study of the skeleton led to the conclusion 

 that in spite of this very singular resem- 

 blance it was not a relative of Phororhachos, 

 although perhaps of similar habits. 



The skull of Diatrymo is about 17 inches 



long, the beak 6% inches high and OMj inches 

 long. It is very short behind the beak, the 

 back of the skull broad and adapted for 

 powerful jaw and neck muscles, and the jaw 

 also is very heavy and deep. The back part 

 of the skull is much shorter relatively to the 

 beak than in Phororhachos, and the beak 

 does not have the strong down-curving tip; 

 the jaw is much heavier and the whole con- 

 stiuction shows a far more j^ower- 

 Fu! bill. 



The vertebrie are extremely mas- 

 sive and comparatively short, as 

 one might expect from the size of 

 the skull. The shoulder-girdle is 

 very like that of a cassowary, and 

 the wings were reduced in about 

 the same proportion — more than in 

 the ostrich or rhea, but not so 

 much as in the moa, wdiere there is 

 no trace of them left. The body 

 and hind limbs had much the same 

 general proportions as in the moas, 

 much bulkier but not materially 

 higher in the back than a big mod- 

 ern ostrich, and on account of the 

 short neck the head w-as not so 

 high. 



Our Diatrijma must have been 

 a tinily magnificent bird — much 

 bigger than an ostrich though not 

 so tall, and more impressive be- 

 cause of the huge head and thick 

 neck. 



The discovery of this skeleton, 

 practically complete and for an 

 Eocene fossil imusually well pre- 

 served, is one of the few really im- 

 portant discoveries which have been made 

 among fossil birds. Its exact relationships 

 and the evidence that it affords as to the 

 evolution and phylogeny of the birds, are 

 discussed in an article iu the May, 1917, Mu- 

 seum BaJIclin. It does not appear to be 

 closely related to any other known bird, living 

 or extinct, but, like Phororhachos, it belongs 

 to the Euornitlies or modernized birds, and is 

 not related to any of the great ground birds, 

 living or extinct, although resembling them 

 in body and legs. Its nearest living relative 

 ajipears to be the seriema of South America, 

 which in its turn is related to the cranes. 



