Richard Owen

“ Thus Odontopteryx, independently of its teeth, shows, in the unique fossil representing the genus, its distinctness from all known existing genera of birds.
Of the species which have the bill armed with tooth-like processes, the enumeration is easy. The true Falcons have the single "tooth" on each side of the upper jaw; a like armature of the beak of the Butcher birds has suggested the term "dentirostres" for the tribe of Passerines including the Laniidoæ. The male of one genus of Humming-bird has the same character, whence the name "Androdon." ”

“ He thought the present fossil presented some Chelonian characters, but that in many Lizards we may find indications of a dentition similar to that of the fossil. He considered that there could be no doubt as to the connexion between Reptiles and Mammals, and that Prof. Huxley was wrong in his views as to the relationship between Birds and Reptiles. Every mammalian type has a reptilian brain in its earliest stages. ”

“ The alveolar border swells slightly where it forms the dental base; the outer side of the tooth is sculptured like the rest of the bone, but in a less or finer degree (see the magnified view, fig. 5, a) . At rather less than a line in advance of this tooth is a minute one like the fourth ; in advance of this is the base of a larger denticle (ib. b) , the fracture of which shows a cavity filled by pyritic matrix; and at a line in advance of this is the fractured hollow base of a smaller denticle: these hollows might at first sight be mistaken for sockets. ”

“ There is no such trace in the Cormorants, Anhingas, and Gannets; and it is in these fish-eating sea-birds that an extent of upper beak-bone, free from narial vacuities, would be found corresponding with that which is preserved in the Sheppey fossil. But the Totipalmates have not the orbit bounded by a hind wall as in Odontopteryx; the superorbital border is abruptly truncate behind by a wide and deep crotaphyte fossa, which in the Cormorant and Gannet ascends so as almost to meet its fellow upon the parietal region of the cranium. ”

“ In this character, as in the number of incisors, the South- African Karoo fossil resembles the Marsupial genus Didelphis. The lower incisors are subequal, subcompressed, and elliptical in transverse section, at least at the base of the crown, with the long-axis of the section directed from the fore to the hind part of the alveolar border; and they are close-set, as in carnivorous mammals. As in these, also, the dentine, in both canines and incisors, is of the hard unvascular kind, and the enamel as distinct in tissue and as thick. ”

“ The smaller teeth are so closely confluent with the alveolar border of both jaws as to seem to be processes: the larger anteriorly terminal teeth, though anchylosed to the bone, have their base defined by a ridge, suggesting the outlet of a socket, which is best marked in the lower jaw. All these teeth are tipped or capped with hard dentine; but such is not the case with the bony tooth-like processes in Odontopteryx. These seem, moreover, to have been sheathed with horn, or to have supported tooth-like processes of the horny beak ”

“ But this is not the homologue of the commonly called "supracondyloid canal" in the humerus of certain Reptilia. The "internal condyle" of Cuvier and anthropotomy is the "ulnar condyle;" the "external condyle" is that which is termed "radial" in vertebrate anatomy. Thus the zootomist has to take into account, in the application of his science to Palæontology, of an "ulnar supracondyloid foramen," and a "radial supracondyloid foramen." There is, also, a third perforation of the distal end of the humerus distinct from both, which may be termed an "inter-condyloid foramen." ”

“ The upper part of the upper beak in Sula is broad and arched at its base, the transverse convexity being more marked as the beak narrows and advances. In Odontopteryx an upper tract is pinched off, so to speak, from the sides, flattened above at first, and becoming transversely convex as it narrows and advances, the sides of the beak below this tract being transversely concave in a feeble degree before attaining the groove (g) . ”

“ The hind half of the mandibular ramus resembles in its depth and thinness that part of the lower jaw of the Lamellirostrals more than it does the same part in the Totipalmates, where it is thicker and shallower.
The outer surface of the dentary is divided into an upper and lower tract in Swans and Geese by a groove which, beginning near the trace of the suture with the angular and surangular elements, curves feebly downwards as it advances forward: Cygnus Ruppelii, in this character, nearly repeats that in Odontopteryx. ”

“ A beak longer than the cranium is the rule in the Aves aquaticæ; but not any of the waders has the external nostrils so remote from the orbits as in Odontopteryx. This character of the fossil confines one to the Totipalmates and tubinarial Longipennates ”

“ Searching over the residuary, more or less shapeless blocks of matrix from the Karoo lacustrine deposits of South Africa, transmitted by their discoverer the late Andrew Geddes Bain, Esq., F.G.S., I came upon a lump about the size of one's fist, in which the sole indication of organic remains was a pair of mutilated canine-shaped teeth. ”

“ Has the transference of structures from the reptilian to the mammalian type been a seeming one, delusive, due to accidental coincidence in animal species independently (thaumatogenously) created? or was the transference real, consequent on nomogeny or the incoming of species by secondary law, the mode of operation of which we have still to learn? ”

“ The course of what remains of the boundary between the dentary (fig. 1, 32) and hinder part (ib. 31) of the ramus corresponds so closely with that of the left ramus (fig. 2) as to add to the probability that it is a retained suture, or a yielding of the ramus along the line of, perhaps, a partially ossified suture.
The upper border of the mandible beneath the zygoma is moderately convex toward the orbit, but not partially produced as a coronoid process; the ramus here is thin transversely in proportion to its depth, its thickness not exceeding 2 lines. ”

“ Por the name of these extinct carnivorous Saurians I find it convenient, and believe it will be generally acceptable, to form a distinct order of Reptilia under the denomination of Theriodontia, with the following characters:—"Dentition of the carnivorous type; incisors defined by position and divided from the molars by a large laniariform canine on each side of both upper and lower jaws, the lower canine crossing in front of the upper; no ectopterygoids; humerus with an entepicondylar foramen ”

“ The more rounded, thickened char- acter which prevails through nearly the whole extent of the humerus of the feline as of most mammals, is here confined to a constriction barely an inch in extent between the subsidence of the deltoid al or delto-pectoral crest and the beginning of the neuro-arterial bridge (h) on the inner side, and of the supinator crest (e) on the outer side of the lower two fifths of the bone. The perforation itself (k) is more highly placed, is further from the articular surface for the ulna, than in Felis. The ulnar articulation or " trochlea " is less defined ”

“ Many of the bone-cells were in the direction of the long axis of the process, as at a, a (fig. 2) , and averaged in length 1/800 of an inch; others, nearer the vascular canals, were arranged in a direction at right angles to the long axis of the process, as at b, b, ib.: these indicated a short or transverse diameter of the cell of 1/3000 an inch. The canaliculi from the bone-cells were obliterated. ”

“ XVI. fig. 3) is broader than it is high; the occipital foramen (ib. m) partakes of the same proportion; the transverse diameter also exceeds in the condyle (ib. 1) , of which hemisphere the upper part is truncate. The upper border of the foramen, through the posterior swelling of the cerebellum, slightly overhangs the condyle. The cerebellar protuberance (ib. 3) seems to have had a vertical median ridge, as it shows the broken or worn base of such a prominence. On each side of the cerebellar protuberance the occipital surface is smooth and moderately concave across ”

“ Reverting to the chief character of the Theriodont reptiles, a fact of some significance may be noted, viz. that the incisive formula of some of the species is repeated in the low marsupial order of mammals. Didelphis, e.g., has i. 5—5/4—4, as in Cynodraco; Thylacinus and Sarcophilus have i. 4—4/3—3, as in Cynochampsa. In no placental carnivore do the incisors exceed 3—3/3—3. ”

“ The articular end of each mandibular ramus (Pl. XVI. figs. 1 & 2, 30) is broken away: an impression on the matrix shows the vertical diameter of the ramus (fig. 8, 30) , at the joint with the tympanic, to have been 41/2 lines (0⋅009 m.) ; in advance of this the preserved part rapidly gains depth and gives 8 lines (0⋅017 m.) , where it is parallel (figs. 1, 2, 30, 31) with the fore border of the orbit. Here a fracture or suture runs from below upward and forward to beneath the hind point or end of the upper jaw (fig. 2, 21) . ”

“ XVI. fig. 4, 11, f, n) ; this is not a fracture, or but partially so at its outer ends.
The length of the frontal part of the cranium is 2 inches (0⋅050 m.) ; the least breadth of the interorbital tract is nearly 6 lines (0⋅012 m.) ; the extent of the frontal suture is 9 lines (0⋅020 m.) . The antorbital process of the lacrymal (fig. 2, 73) is less mutilated on the left side of the fossil, which gives an appreciable idea of its size and shape. ”