File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17973228238).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo17amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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4iy THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL scarce specie;?, and was iu itself worth the expense of the expedition. But he Avas also so fortunate as to discover a practically complete skeleton of this giant bird, whicli previously had been known only from the fragments above mentioned. The skeleton is of gigantic size, equaling all but the largest of the extinct moas of New Zealand, and much exceeding any mod-
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Reconstructed skeleton of Diatrijma steini. The missing portions are dotted ern bird in bulk. It is also of very extraor- dinary and striking proportions, with a huge head and massive neck, quite unlike any existing bird, and Avith an enormous high compressed beak. These proportions at once suggested that it was a relative or ancestor of those extinct giant birds of South Amer- ica, Pliororhachos and its allies, which it resembles in size and general proportions and especially in the great beak. A more careful study of the skeleton led to the conclusion that in spite of this very singular resem- blance it was not a relative of Phororhachos, although perhaps of similar habits. The skull of Diatrymo is about 17 inches long, the beak 6% inches high and OMj inches long. It is very short behind the beak, the back of the skull broad and adapted for powerful jaw and neck muscles, and the jaw also is very heavy and deep. The back part of the skull is much shorter relatively to the beak than in Phororhachos, and the beak does not have the strong down-curving tip; the jaw is much heavier and the whole con- stiuction shows a far more j^ower- Fu! bill. The vertebrie are extremely mas- sive and comparatively short, as one might expect from the size of the skull. The shoulder-girdle is very like that of a cassowary, and the wings were reduced in about the same proportion—more than in the ostrich or rhea, but not so much as in the moa, wdiere there is no trace of them left. The body and hind limbs had much the same general proportions as in the moas, much bulkier but not materially higher in the back than a big mod- ern ostrich, and on account of the short neck the head w-as not so high. Our Diatrijma must have been a tinily magnificent bird—much bigger than an ostrich though not so tall, and more impressive be- cause of the huge head and thick neck. The discovery of this skeleton, practically complete and for an Eocene fossil imusually well pre- served, is one of the few really im- portant discoveries which have been made among fossil birds. Its exact relationships and the evidence that it affords as to the evolution and phylogeny of the birds, are discussed in an article iu the May, 1917, Mu- seum BaJIclin. It does not appear to be closely related to any other known bird, living or extinct, but, like Phororhachos, it belongs to the Euornitlies or modernized birds, and is not related to any of the great ground birds, living or extinct, although resembling them in body and legs. Its nearest living relative ajipears to be the seriema of South America, which in its turn is related to the cranes.

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