File:History of North American pinnipeds - a monograph of the walruses, sea-lions, sea-bears and seals of North America (1880) (14577848049).jpg

Identifier: historyofnortham00alleuoft (find matches)
Title: History of North American pinnipeds : a monograph of the walruses, sea-lions, sea-bears and seals of North America
Year: 1880 (1880s)
Authors: Allen, J. A. (Joel Asaph), 1838-1921
Subjects: Pinnipedia -- North America Mammals -- North America
Publisher: Washington : G.P.O.
Contributing Library: Earth Sciences - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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Fig. 1.—Odobccnus rosmarus, 5. In the National Museum at Washington a,ve also four skulls,which, though unmarked as to sex, are unquestionably those of 42 ODOB^NUS ROSMAEUS ATLANTIC WALEUS. females.* They agree witli tlie one already described as tosmall size, the absence of well-developed crests and ridges formuscular attachment, small, slender tusks, and general weak-ness of structure, as comj)ared with male skulls of correspond-ing age.t The closed sutures show that they belonged to agedindividuals, but in other respects might be iiresumed to be skullsof young animals, for which such skulls are doubtless usuallymistaken.
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 2.—Odoicenus rosmarus, $. From these data it seems fair to conclude that there are well-marked sexual differences among Wah-uses, manifested espe-cially in the inferiority of size of the female, in the comi)arativelyweak development of the bones of the skull, the smaller size ofthe bones of the general skeleton, and in the size and form ofthe tiTsks. These differences are, in short, just such as, fromanalogy, one would naturally expect to exist, and confirm the * This I inferred from their small size aud light strncture, and was pleasedto have my determination confirmed by so comi^etent an authority as Dr.Emil Bessels, who pronounced them to be unquestionably those of females.Dr. Besselss judgment, it is perhaps needless to say, is based on j)ersonalexperience while on the Polaris Expedition, during which ho secured andprepared numerous specimens of both sexes, Avhich were lost with the ill-fated vessel. t In the National Musemn there is also a female skull of the Pacific Wakus

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