Abstract
THE account of the teeth of Ornithorhynchus, given by Sir Everard Home in “Lectures on Comparative Anatomy,” vol. i. p. 305, explanatory of Tab. lix. vol. ii., referred to by Mr. Hart Merriam in your last issue (p. II), shows, even more clearly than the figures, that the true teeth had not been noticed at that time (1814). The passage is as follows:—“In the posterior portion of the mouth, both in the upper and lower jaw, are placed grinding teeth with broad flattened crowns, four in number, one on each side of each jaw. They are composed of a horny substance (the italics are my own), only embedded in the gum, to which they are connected by an irregular surface in the place of fangs. When cut through, the substance appears fibrous, like that of nail; the direction of the fibres being perpendicular to the crown, similar to that of the horny crust of the gizzard. The teeth in the young animal are smaller, and two on each side, so that the first teeth are probably shed, and the two small ones replaced by one large one.”
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LATTER, O. Who discovered the Teeth in Ornithorhynchus?. Nature 41, 31 (1889). https://doi.org/10.1038/041031b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/041031b0
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