36 Mantell on Fossil Remains from Neiv Zealand. 



temporal and occipital regions, is wholly unlike any hitherto ob- 

 served in the class of birds, and approaches that of reptiles. It is 

 characterized by the nearly vertical occipital plane, the elevated po- 

 sition and form of the foramen magnum, and the great development 

 below the occipital condyle, and the strong ridges which border the 

 basi-occipital, and indicate a most extraordinary power in the 

 muscles that moved the cranium. The temporal fossae are very 

 deep, and are strengthened by a prolongation of the mastoid pro- 

 cess, which is united to the frontal, and forms what may be 

 termed a lateral zygomatic arch. The tympanic bone has two 

 distinct cusps for articulation with the double condyle of the cs 

 quadratnm. The configuration of the upper mandible or beak 

 (the lower one is unknown) is very peculiar, and has been aptly 

 compared by Professor Owen to a cooper's adze ; it is consid- 

 ered by him to have been especially adapted for grubbing up 

 roots and tubers ; we have evidence, in the powerful muscles 

 attached to the occipital region, of its having been an instrument 

 capable of being used with great force. There is a portion of 

 the articular part of a large lower jaw, that probably belongs to 

 D. giganteus. 



To this genus belong many vertebrae of enormous size; ribs, 

 bones of the pelvis, and hinder extremities, and some portions of 

 sterni ; they are referable to six or seven species, respectively 

 named from their size and osteological character, D. giganteus, 

 D. robustus, D. ingens, D. casuarimiSj D. geranoides, D. car- 

 tuSy 1). didiforwis. 



Among the bones of the extremities of the large species, I 

 would especially direct attention to the femur, tibia and fibula of 

 a young bird. The femur is 14 inches long, 9 inches in circum- 

 ference round the shaft, and 16 inches round the condyles. The 

 tibia, in which the union of the epiphysis of the proximal ex- 

 tremity is still incomplete, is 30 inches long, 6 inches in circum- 

 ference at the shaft, and 14 at the condyles. The tibia of a much 

 younger bird gives still more colossal proportions : for it measures 

 12 inches in circumference at the condyles, and yet the distal 

 epiphysis, which is always rapidly anchylosed to the shaft in 

 birds, is still distinct. The proximal extremities of other tibise 

 are 17 inches in circumference ; and there are fragments of shafts 

 8 inches round. 



2. Palapteryx. — In this genus the skull differs essentially from 

 that of the Dinornis; the occipital region is narrower; the fora- 



the 



Dinornis *s 



occupied by the condyle ; the basi-occipital is not so much de- 

 veloped ; and there are other osteological peculiarities which I 

 need not detail. The rostral part of both mandibles is preserved, 

 and shows an approach to the Dromaius or Emeu. The ethmoid 

 cavities, or upper nostrils of the skulL are very lai 





