Page:American Journal of Science, Series 2, Volume 9.djvu/54

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44
J. Wyman on the Engé-ena.

It does not appear that any other bones of the skeleton have as yet fallen into the hands of any European naturalist. A description of some of the more important of them will be found in the memoir above referred to,[1] in which it will be seen that there are two anthropoid features of some importance, which go to support the view advanced by Prof. Owen, and these are the comparative length of the humerus and ulna, the former being seventeen and the latter only fourteen inches, and in the proportions of the pelvis. This last is of gigantic size, and is a little shorter in proportion to its breadth than in T. uiger.

While the proportions of the humerus and the ulna are more nearly human than in the Chimpanzee, those of the humerus and femur recede much farther from the human proportions than they do in the Chimpanzee, as will be seen by the following measurements:

Man, Humerus. 15·0 Chimpanzée, . Engé-ena, 10·9 17·0 Femur. 18·5 11·0 14·0

Thus in man the femur is three inches longer than the humerus, in the Chimpanzée, these bones are nearly of the same length, and in the Engé-ena the humerus is three inches longer than the femur, indicating on the part of the Engé-ena a less perfect adaptation to locomotion in the erect position than in the Chimpanzee.

Canine tooth of the Engé-ena—natural size.

Description of a canine tooth of a male Engé-ena.—In only one of the crania of the male Engé-enas which I have seen were the canines remaining; and these were so much abraded that they had lost to a great extent, their natural outline, and consequently their most striking and distinctive marks. In the females, as in the Chimpanzée and the Quadrumana, generally the canines are much less elongated than in the males. Among the bones first sent to this country by Dr. Savage, was the canine tooth represented in the annexed figure, which I was not able to identify, until an opportunity occurred of comparing it with Prof. Owen's descriptions of more perfect teeth. The crown is laterally compressed, the posterior edge being trenchant and its base provided with a prominent tubercle, which is doubtless rendered more conspicuous by the wearing of the edge beneath it. On its inner surface the crown is impressed with two strongly marked grooves, which extend from the base nearly to


  1. Boston Journal of Nat. History, vol. v, p. 417.