Research Catalog

Title

The therian skull : a lexicon with emphasis on the odontocetes / J.G. Mead and R.E. Fordyce.

Author

Mead, James G.

Publication

Washington, D.C. : Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2009.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Fordyce, R. Ewan.

Description

viii, 248 p. : ill.; 28 cm.

Summary

Cetaceans form one of the most unique groups in the evolutionary history of mammals. They have returned to the sea and modified their tail as an efficient means of locomotion. As they adapted to the limited visibility in the aquatic environment, the odontocetes developed a system of echolocation that resulted in extensive modifications to the skull bones. This made descriptive comparisons very difficult and early anatomists unwittingly composed new terms for anatomical structures that had already been named in other taxa. This made anatomical comparisons, based on the literature, extremely tenuous. This lexicon is an attempt to remedy that situation in that it provides headwords and definitions for all the terms that have been used in describing the mammal skull and notes the synonymous terms. The lexicon includes the human nomenclature (Nomina Anatomica), the veterinary nomenclature (Nomina Anatomica Veterinaria) and the nomenclature that is used in descriptive comparative anatomy. The lexicon covers not only extant but extinct mammalian groups and is extensively indexed.

Series Statement

Smithsonian contributions to zoology, 0081-0282 ; no. 627

Uniform Title

Smithsonian contributions to zoology ; no. 627.

Subjects

• Knochen
• Anatomy, Comparative
• Cetacea > Anatomy
• Mammals > Anatomy
• Skull > Dictionaries
• Kopf
• Zahnwale

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [207]-216) and index.

Additional Formats (note)

• Also issued electronically via World Wide Web in PDF format.

LCCN

2007045891

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries