| OCR Text |
Show 1894.] IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 113 1 cm. thick in the middle of the shaft, where the spongy bone is wanting; above and below this point the wall becomes thinner and the bony network more developed. A left fibula, broken at the lower end, probably belongs to the same species. It is compressed from side to side to a rather greater extent than the fibula of Dinornis, and consequently its surface for articulation with the femur is narrower. The tuberosity for the insertion of the biceps cruris is very strongly developed, and the distance from it to the upper end of the bone is 19 cm. The greatest antero-posterior width of the upper end is 7-5 cm.; the width of the articular surface from side to side is 2-7 cm. A very imperfect proximal end of a left tarso-metatarsus, from the same locality, measures 17*5 cm. across and probably belongs to AS. titan. A m o n g the femora that are provisionally referred to the same species, there is one (figs. 1 & 2, a, pp. 114,115) from the left side nearly complete, wanting only the upper end of the trochanter and some portion of the condyles. Its dimensions are:- Circumference of the shaft at the narrowest part Width from side to side at the same point Width of distal end (approxi- M. titan. cm. 41-0 27-3 9-2 21-0 M. maximus. cm. 320 (? true length) 27 0 9-11 190 (?) M. hildebrandti. cm. 15-8 50 100 The neck is short and thick, measuring 23 cm. in circumference ; its anterior surface is very rugose. The trochanter is very massive ; its smooth upper surface for articulation with the anti-trochanter of the ilium slopes steeply upwards and outwards from the neck, widening rapidly, and it must have risen considerably above the head, but the upper end being abraded it cannot be determined to what extent this was the case. The anterior surface of the trochanter does not appear to have projected forward so much as in Dinornis. O n the posterior surface near its junction with the neck is a large pneumatic foramen, the edge of which is unfortunately broken, so that its size cannot be accurately determined. This opens into a wide thin-walled passage, measuring 3 cm. from side 1 This measurement is taken from a cast in the British Museum. PROC. ZOOL. Soc.-1894, No. VIII. 8 |
