OCR Text |
Show 156 MR. R. COLLETT ON ECHIDNA ACANTHION. [Feb. 3, of retroverted spines, the number of which varies in the different specimens ; as a rule the hinder and middlemost rows, which are the longest, have 15 to 20 of these spines. They are very short and sharp. In the young male (No. 8) the skull is not yet full-grown; the snout is remarkably short, even shorter than the breadth of the skulll. The snout is not bent up, but perfectly straight, the profile of the frontals not being concave over the orbits; but a faint concavity can be traced beyond the middle of the nasalia. The snout is proportionally broad in this specimen; the breadth of the ossa nasalia on their frontal end measuring together 16 millim. ; in the full-grown specimen the breadth is about 10-11 millim. Fertebra.-The number of vertebrae was as follows :-cervical vertebrae 7, dorsal vertebrae 16, lumbar vertebrae 3, sacral vertebra? 3, caudal vertebras 13-14 (where the latter have been complete). In two specimens, a female with a total length of 425 millim. (No. 2), and a male with a total length of 448 millim. (No. 3), the last dorsal vertebra had no trace of ribs, and thus there were 15 dorsal and 4 lumbar vertebrae. All the vertebrae were more slender than in specimens of E. aculeata of the same size. The Limbs.-The exact measurements of the bones of fore and hind limbs are as follows :- Humerus2 Ulna ... Radius ... Femur ... Tibia ... Fibula ... No. 5, S-Total length 415 millim. millim. 42 62 48 54 51 57 No. 4. Total length 420 millim. millim. 42 62 48 52 52 59 No. 2,5. Total length 425 millim. millim. 45 67 50 57 56 62 No. 3, 4. Total length 448 millim. millim. 42 67 52 55 55 62 No. 9, ?. Total length 448 millim. millim. 46 67 53 57 57 60 The ossa marsupialia have about the same length as the humerus. The claws are no doubt of precisely the same construction as in the Papuan E. lawesi. The second claw is very long, strong, and curved, with a length of 35-36 millim., or even 38 millim., whereas the third claw is much slenderer and is scarcely half the size of the second ; its length is 15-16 millim., and it is but a little longer than the fourth and fifth, which are the shortest. 1 Length of the skeleton 365 millim.; length of the skull 93 millim.; snout 41 millim.; breadth of the skull 43 millim.; proportion of the snout to the skull 2-02. 2 Measured from the articulations. |