Abstract
IN 1889, Mr. A. Hamilton, of the Otago University, submitted to me some of the Moa bones he had exhumed from a swamp near Te Aute, in the North Island of this colony. Among them there were several very diminutive scapulo-coracoids and sterna, which I hope soon to figure and describe. Among the former was one which presented a small but distinct hollow in the situation where the glenoid cavity occurs in the winged Ratitæ. I made a sketch at the time, and exhibited the bone at one of the meetings of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury. Though satisfied in my own mind that this hollow did represent a humerus articulation, I have been unable to find confirmation of its existence in any other scapulo-coracoid among the Moa collections I have examined. Among the bones, however, which I lately dug up from a peaty hollow near Oamaru, in the South Island, I have found a large scapulo-coracoid presenting a deep, well-marked depression, with a beautifully smooth and polished concavity, which leaves no room for doubt that it has been a functional glenoid cavity for a humerus possessing a head not less substantial at least than that in the Cassowaries. The accompanying drawing (half the natural size), made by camera lucida, will convey better than a de scription the form and position of the depression. Proximally to the cavity, and separated from it by a smooth ridge, there is a shallow impression (not seen in the figure), as if it were an antitrochanter for some tuberosity on the humerus. The coracoidal termination of the bone fits perfectly into a deep and rounded depression in a sternum obtained at the same time and place as the scapulo-coracoid, belonging to Dinornis maximus of Owen. Prof. T. J. Parker has proved that the Apterygidæ are undoubtedly descended from birds that could fly: the finding of so unmistakable a glenoid cavity in the present bone confirms the generalization for the Dinornithidæ.
Article PDF
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
FORBES, H. Evidence of a Wing in Dinornis.. Nature 45, 257 (1892). https://doi.org/10.1038/045257a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/045257a0