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Show 1876.] DR. J. V. HAAST ON MESOPLODON FLOWERI. 479 quently by Prof. Owen, in vol. xxiii. of the publications of the Palae-ontographical Society of London, under the title of Ziphius (Doli-chodon, Gray) layardi. So far as I am aware, nothing is known of that interesting animal except the skull with the lower jaw, between which and the New- Zealand specimen under review there exist some points of difference, as I shall point out further on ; moreover, as I believe that the same species of Ziphioid Whale would scarcely exist in two regions so far distant from each other, I have thought it more expedient to designate the New-Zealand species by the specific term floioeri, in honour of the accomplished anatomist, Prof.W. H. Flower, F.R.S., to whom the New-Zealand naturalists owe a great debt of gratitude for his excellent memoir on Berardius arnouxi. The animal proved, on dissection, to be a full-grown male and or mature age, the terminal epiphyses of the bodies of the vertebrae being so thoroughly ankylosed that the line of junction could not be detected ; and we can draw the conclusion from its osteological characteristics that it must have combined considerable strength with great swiftness, whilst at the same time the large and remarkable strap-like teeth must have given it a peculiar appearance. The skeleton (Plate X L V . fig. 1), as now mounted, has a total length of 17 feet 9 inches, which closely corresponds with the measurement given to me, and taken before the flesh was removed from the skeleton. The skull, of which I add an upper view (Plate X L V I . fig. 1), resembles in all its general features so closely the skulls of M. layardi, as described by Prof. Owen, that it would be superfluous to offer any detailed account of it. Amongst other peculiarities, the frontals have also the same well-defined form, and appear as a dense convex ridge between the premaxillaries as in the Cape specimen. Notwithstanding this general likeness, if we compare closely the figures of both skulls, it is nevertheless apparent that there exist some differences between them, of which I wish to point out the following ones:- Thus the frontals in the Cape specimen rise higher above the maxillaries than in the New-Zealand specimen ; and the occipital portion of the skull is far more rounded in the former than in the latter, in which the supra-occipital stands nearly vertical, whilst in the Cape specimen this portion of the skull has a considerable slope towards the foramen magnum. At the junction of the basioccipital with the temporal, the former enters the latter with a sharp angular projection, whilst in the New-Zealand specimen it has a rounded edge. The interparietal in the New-Zealand specimen runs up to the crest a much narrower bone than in the Cape one, in which it has a rounded form near its junction with the frontals. Besides the difference in the mandibular teeth to be pointed out hereafter, I find that the lower jaw is far deeper in proportion to its length in the New-Zealand specimen. |
