Memoirs MCZ 4005

/iDemotrs of tbe /iDuseum of Comparattve Zoologg AT HARVARD COLLEGE Vol XL No ZAGLOSSUS BY GLOVER M ALLEN With Two Plates CAMBRIDGE,_U.S.A.: printeb for tbe /IDuseuin October, 1912 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION HISTORY AND NOMENCLATURE EXTERNAL CHARACTERS 253 253 Measurements 260 MUSCULATURE Muscles of the Skin Muscles of Head and Neck Caudal Muscles Muscles of Thorax and Abdomen Muscles of Throat and Larynx Muscles of the Fore Leg Muscles of the Hind Leg VISCERAL ANATOMY 255 260 260 • 263 266 267 269 270 276 284 Digestive Tract 284 Mesenteries Spleen Kidneys and Genitalia Lungs 286 PLEXUSES OSTEOLOGY Skull Vertebrae Ribs Girdles and Limbs Spur ~ , 286 286 286 287 288 288 295 297 298 301 HABITS 301 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 302 BIBLIOGRAPHY EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES 305 ZAGLOSSUS INTRODUCTION Since of New its discovery in 1876, specimens of the Long-beaked spiny anteater Guinea have been rare in collections Hitherto the osteology of but a specimen has been completely known, and of the anatomy of the soft No less than five forms have been parts practically nothing has been pubUshed described, but the vahdity of most of these seems questionable, and even the single genus itself is by some considered unworthy The Museum has and three of recognition lately acquired seven specimens, four skins with skulls which together with a mounted skin purchased alcoholics, many years and a mounted skeleton kindly loaned by the United States national ago, to constitute museum, appear basis of this material I all On the available material in America have prepared the following review of the history the and characters of this interesting monotreme HISTORY AND NO:\IENCLATURE Peters and Doria (1876) based their original description of the Proechidna on a cranium from Mt Arfak, northern New Guinea the posterior end as well as the lower jaw, but from It lacked a large part of its strikingly long and curved rostrum as compared with that of the AustraUan Echidna, they considered it a new species and named it Tachyglossus bruijnii In the Annual record of science attention to this name pubUshed about May 5, 1877, Gill called new and remarkable animal and proposed for it the generic and industry for 1876, p clxxi, Gervais, in November, 1877, unaware of Zaglossus (see Palmer, 1895) Gill's paper, likewise named it considered it generically distinct from Tachyglossus and Acanthoglossus, which he shortly discovered was preoccupied by Acanthoglossa for a genus of insects under which title it estabUshed that it He accordingly renamed has become generally known seems best to retain it it Proechidna, Indeed the name is so well in a vernacular sense, as well as the ZAGLOSSUS 254 name Echidna Dubois (1881) considered Acanthoglossus for Tachyglossus sufficiently distinct from Acanthoglossa but in case this view were not accepted, he proposed the name Bruynia instead, with Iridadyla as the Thomas amends In the Zoological record for 1882, tlie combination Bruijnia bruijnii, though Proechidna bruijnii which is and Monotremata supialia the in name and adopts this to Bruijnia, used in his Catalogue of the Mar- museum the British name year fla, plantaris; semitendinosus; adductor femoris, from two heads; al, (cut); gas, gastrocnemius; pec, gracilis rectus femoris; sa, sartorius; sm, semimembranosus; X — 7.— Larynx, lungs, and X 8.— c, cricoid; ce, ceratohyal; 6, basihyal; thyrohyal The heart is turned forward, expo.'^ing the azygos lobe of the lungs Side view of the skull of an immature Proechidna, showing somewhat I, thyroid; X 0.6 diagrammatically the sutures, bo, basioccipital; eo, exoccipital; /, frontal; neariy covered by jugal, squamosal, partly covered by jugal; p parietal — Larynx in side view X 0.6 its so, if, interfrontal; ip, interparietal; j, and squamosal: m, maxillary; n, nasal; outline shown by broken line; pm, premaxillary; «, X 0.6 supraoccipital; t, temporal canal jugal, greatly expanded, covering part of parietal Fig soleus; 0.6 heart, ventral aspect, ih, Fig so, 0.6 X 0.6 Fig 5.— Caecum Fig Spleen, ventral aspect Fig r/, vastus medialis va, af, g, Mem Mus Comp Zool Zaglossus HELIOTYPE CO., BOSTON Plate