396 



QUADRUMANA, 



265 



The annexed figure (265) is a representation of the skull, on which 

 the distinctiveness of the species is founded ; and which, as is proved 



by its state of dentition, belongs to an 

 adult, or, perhaps, aged animal ; though, 

 from the condition of its ridges, and 

 from its size and form, it might be 

 inferred that it belonged to an indivi- 

 dual of the Pithecus Satyrus, in an in- 

 termediate state of growth ; as, indeed, 

 was, at one time, the opinion of M. 

 Dumortier. 



The teeth, however, of the skull in 

 question, all belong to the permanent 

 skuii of Morio Drang. series,* and are even considerably worn. 



The intermaxillary sutures are obliterated ; and the great temporal 

 ridges indicate the extent of the temporal muscle, the interval between 

 them, on the crown, being small. The frontal and sagittal crests, so re- 

 markable both in the Bornean and Sumatran Orangs, are here merely 

 indicated ; and though the lambdoidal and mastoid ridges are developed, 

 they are less so than in those animals ; the situation of the occipital 

 foramen is less posterior than in them, but more so than in the Chimpan- 

 zee ; the proportion between the volume of the face and the cerebral 

 portion of the skull is more anthropoid than in either of the Great 

 Orangs ; the cranium, equal in capacity to that of the Sumatran Orang, 

 rises above the orbits ; while the face, instead of projecting to the great 

 extent seen in the other Orangs, when adult, is far less voluminous and 

 prominent, presenting, therefore, a more obtuse angle ; and, with this 

 diminished facial development is connected a marked inferiority in the 

 magnitude of the canine teeth. -f 



* " The teeth in the jaws of a quadrumanous cranium may be known to belong to the permanent 

 series, by the absence of the foramina, which, in an immature cranium, are situated behind the deci- 

 duous teeth, and which lead to the cavities containing the crowns of the permanent teeth. This 

 character is very conspicuous on comparing the cranium of Simia Morio with that of a young Simia 

 Satyrus, in which the deciduous series are present, together with the first permanent molars. The 

 deciduous teeth in the young Orang, besides their smaller size, are more or less protruded from their 

 sockets, and thrust apart from one another by the vis a tergo of their huge successors, while the 

 teeth of the S. Morio are lodged firmly in the jaws ; and, with the exception of the characteristic 

 interval between the canines and incisors, are compactly arranged in close contiguity with each 

 other." Prof. Owen, Proc. ZooL Soc. Oct. 25th, 1836. 



t " The main and characteristic difference, then, between the Simia Morio and the Pongo, whether 

 of Borneo or Sumatra, obtains in the size of the laniary, or canine teeth, to the smaller development 

 of which, in the S. Morio, almost all the other differences in the cranium are subordinate or conse- 

 quent. The laniary teeth, it may be observed, have little relation to the kind of food habitual to the 

 Orangs ; had they been so related, they would have been accompanied with a structure of the glenoid 

 cavity fitting them, as in the true Carnivora, to retain a living prey in their gripe, till its life was extin- 

 guished, or resistance effectually quelled. But the flattened surfaces on which the condyles of the 

 lower jaw rotate, are in subserviency to the flattened tuberculate molars, shewing the mastication 

 of vegetable substances to be the habitual business of the jaws, and the application of the laniaries to 



