Browsing by Author "Moore, Joseph Curtis."
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Item A beaked whale from the Bahama Islands and comments on the distribution of Mesoplodon densirostris. American Museum novitates ; no. 1897(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1958) Moore, Joseph Curtis."An occurrence of the rare beaked whale Mesoplodon densirostris is reported for the Bahama Islands. Measurements of the skull of this male specimen and its proportions are presented with those of three males from other parts of the North Atlantic Ocean, showing the relationship and variation. Photographs of skull, mandible, and teeth are presented. The reported occurrence of this species in the Gulf of Mexico is shown to be unfounded. The species['] range is thought to be not cosmopolitan, but pelagic in tropical and subtropical waters, from which sick or injured individuals may drift to colder shores"--P. 11.Item Differences between the beaked whales Mesoplodon mirus and Mesoplodon gervaisi. American Museum novitates ; no. 1831(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1957) Moore, Joseph Curtis.; Wood, Forrest G. (Forrest Glenn), 1918-"A stranding of a young male Mesoplodon mirus True is reported from Flagler Beach, Florida - the most southern record for the species. The distribution of occurrences of Mesoplodon mirus and Mesoplodon gervaisi Deslongchamps are charted, and evidence of geographic segregation of the two species is noticed and discussed. Mesoplodon mirus apparently occupies the temperate western North Atlantic, and gervaisi the tropical and near tropical western North Atlantic. Eighteen proposed skull differences between Mesoplodon mirus and M. gervaisi are tested on the two specimens of the former and three of the latter in the American Museum of Natural History, and to some extent on published photographs of other specimens. Five of these propositions are found to be good, or modifiable so that they distinguish this material, and two others are found to be useful as supporting evidence. In addition to the interspecific differences concurred in by this testing of the 18 skull chracters, some intraspecific differences are observed in gervaisi. Part of this variation is shown to be sexual dimorphism, and the studied gervaisi material is sorted by it into three females and three males. Individual variation is evidently greater in the males. Comparison of external body measurements suggests that the length of the flipper of mirus generally exceeds that of gervaisi in proportion to total body length. Comparison of 31 skull measurements of the two species reveals nine measurements which, used collectiely, will separate skulls of these two species"--P. 23-24.Item Geographic variation in some reproductive characteristics of diurnal squirrels. Bulletin of the AMNH ; v. 122, article 1(New York : [American Museum of Natural History], 1961) Moore, Joseph Curtis."The discovery is reported of a third line of evidence which separates the large tribe of Oriental tree squirrels Callosciurini from the Holarctic members of the tribe Sciurini and also associates the widely disjunct Bornean tassel-eared squirrel Reithrosciurus with the Holarctic Sciurini. The third line of evidence is the number of pairs of functional mammae, which are four in the Holarctic Sciurini but only two or three in the Callosciurini. Data in the new line of evidence are presented for samples of 34 of the 37 genera of the subfamily Sciurinae of diurnal squirrels. Their significance to the interrelationships of the eight tribes and their constituent subtribes and genera and occasionally lower categories is evaluated. In general the new line of evidence is equivocal or supports the latest classification of the subfamily Sciurinae. It also suggests some minor refinements. For example, within the large Oriental squirrel subgenus Callosciurus a previously unsuspected division of the species is discovered that separates grossly the Malaysian from the Indo-Chinese species. The species of the Indo-Chinese Subregion have two pairs of mammae; those of the Malaysian Subregion, generally three. In addition to being of systematic value in its geographic variation, the number of pairs of functional mammae is shown to vary with latitude. The number of pairs generally decreases from boreal and temperate climates to tropical. Data from the literature on the size of the brood are presented which reveal that it is correlated with a reduction in mammae from temperate to tropical climates. In the tree squirrels as a whole and in the ground squirrels as a whole, there seems to be a strong trend of larger towards smaller broods from the north temperate climates to tropical climates. This trend corresponds with the decrease in the size of the clutch in birds from the north temperate to tropical climates, but in squirrels the trend seems also to be correlated with a meristic morphological difference--the number of pairs of mammae. No clear answer is at hand for an important question concerning evolution: Do the squirrels of the temperate climate with more mammae and larger broods actually produce more young per year? A definite north-to-south increase of broods from one to two broods per year is found in Nearctic ground squirrels. Data from Funambulus pennanti in India and three species of Callosciurus in Malaya hint that the females of tropical species may rear three or four broods in a single year, instead of one or two as do their relatives in more northern latitudes"--P. 29.Item The natural history of the fox squirrel, Sciurus niger shermani. Bulletin of the AMNH ; v. 113, article 1(New York : [American Museum of Natural History], 1957) Moore, Joseph Curtis.Item New genera of East Indian squirrels. American Museum novitates ; no. 1914(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1958) Moore, Joseph Curtis.Item New records of the Gulf-Stream beaked whale, Mesoplodon gervaisi, and some taxonomic considerations. American Museum novitates ; no. 1993(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1960) Moore, Joseph Curtis."An apparently adult male of Mesoplodon gervaisi stranded on the Gulf coast of Florida at Boca Grande, about latitude 26° 42' N., in April, 1959, and most of its skeleton was recovered and presented to the American Museum of Natural History. Its protruding mandibular teeth were said to fit into grooves in the skin of the upper jaw. It is the second adult male recognized and the twelfth known specimen of the species. The left tooth of a male beaked whale stranded at Padre Island, Texas, about latitude 27° 15' N., in September, 1946, is now identifiable as Mesoplodon gervaisi and is the thirteenth specimen made known as such. An apparently adult female of this species stranded on the Atlantic coast of Florida near Vero Beach at about latitude 27° 45' N., about February of 1958, and its skeleton was secured by the United States National Museum. Its skull is the largest on record for the species, and it is the fourteenth known specimen. From study of these materials, the skulls of three other specimens of gervaisi, and photographs of five others, it has been possible to reject finally a number of propositions that have been made in the literature from studies of smaller amounts of material of this and related species, and to offer the following findings: 1. The discovery by Flower (1878) that the relative position of the maxillary and premaxillary foramina separates certain species of Mesoplodon from others was made when only one specimen of gervaisi was known and before mirus had been found. Even as altered by Nishiwaki and Kamiya (1958), it does not satisfactorily distinguish either gervaisi or mirus. 2. The partial skull from North Long Branch, New Jersey (Allen, 1909), is shown here to belong to gervaisi. 3. Mesoplodon pacificus Longman is shown to differ from M. mirus in too many skull characters to be considered a subspecies of it. 4. To the sexual dimorphism in gervaisi previously restricted to the single pair of mandibular teeth, one may now add that relatively greater length of the symphysis seems to characterize adult females, and that greater size of the skull (and presumably the size of the whole animal) may also characterize the female. 5. The known maximum length of gervaisi is concluded to be 467 cm. (15.3 feet). 6. The length of the mandible seems to provide an indication of relative age. 7. It appears that the mesirostral canal of gervaisi may fill more slowly in females than in males. 8. The three new locality records for gervaisi support the concept that gervaisi may have a somewhat more southern range than that of mirus"--P. 32-33.Item A new species and a redefinition of the squirrel genus Prosciurillus of Celebes. American Museum novitates ; no. 1890(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1958) Moore, Joseph Curtis.; Heinrich, Gerd H., 1896-Item New striped tree squirrels from Burma and Thailand. American Museum novitates ; no. 1879(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1958) Moore, Joseph Curtis.; Heinrich, Gerd H., 1896-; Elbel, Robert Edwin, 1925-Item A new subgenus and new species of squirrel from Borneo. American Museum novitates ; no. 1944(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1959) Moore, Joseph Curtis.; Hose, Charles, 1863-1929.Item A new subspecies of an oriental squirrel, Dremomys lokriah. American Museum novitates ; no. 1816(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1956) Moore, Joseph Curtis.; Heinrich, Gerd H., 1896-Item Observations of manatees in aggregations. American Museum novitates ; no. 1811(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1956) Moore, Joseph Curtis."The difficulties of observing wild manatees under ordinary circumstances were found to be substantial and were considered to explain the absence of any previous report of systematized field observations. Natural cold-induced aggregations of wild manatees were found to provide favorable circumstances for field observations. Identification of individuals by means of scars permitted recognition of some of them five and a quarter years after first identification. During the last winter season of observations, 1954-1955, in 10 aggregations, 57 marked individuals were recognized and 195 individuals were estimated to have been present. Some of these evidently reside in the vicinity at least during the winter season. And of these some appear to move in for the winter season, possibly taking part in a seasonal migration. Presence or absence of barnacles and algae on the skin indicates that some individuals reside in fresh water up river, others in the saline waters of the bay. Pattern of attendance of aggregations by marked individuals suggests that their ranges were dispersed and reveals no evidence of social organization. Mothers with young were not accompanied by other individuals. Groups within the aggregations engaged in play. The muzzle-to-muzzle contact between individuals involves lifting snouts above the surface, perhaps as relict behavior inherited from terrestrial ancestors. The usually observed courtship behavior was of a male approaching, nuzzling, 'embracing,' and presenting its venter to some presumed female, which most frequently turned away or swam off before courtship proceeded further. Of the identifiable sample of 65 individuals about 15 per cent were recorded as immatures and 15 per cent as calves, each closely accompanying an adult. The relative sizes of calves and other evidence suggest lack of any distinct breeding season. Annual reproduction by adult females is questioned. Young sometimes rode on mother's back. Suckling took place in horizontal psition, under water, without embrace. Very young calves swam only with flippers. Adults ordinarily swam only with tail, but one adult regularly used its flippers also"--P. 22-23.Item On the identity of the tree squirrel Macroxus chinensis Gray, 1867. American Museum novitates ; no. 1970(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1959) Moore, Joseph Curtis.; Tate, G. H. H. (George Henry Hamilton), 1894-1953."Specimen B.M. No. 70b, not specimen B.M. No. 70a, is evidently the type of the tree squirrel species Macroxus chinensis Gray, 1867. Species chinensis is not synonymous with Sundasciurus philippinensis, as has been suggested, nor is it a member of the Oriental tribe Callosciurini. It is instead a member of the primarily Holarctic and Neotropical tribe Sciurini. Although the Sciurini have one member that occupies a relict range in the Oriental region (Reithrosciurus macrotis in Borneo), it sems unlikely that chinensis is another such Oriental species of which the range, except for being allegedly in China, remains entirely unknown. The chinensis material is believed to represent the South American genus genus Guerlinguetus. The specimen B.M. No. 70a seems to represent some geographic variation of ingrami. The pelage of the specimen B.M. No. 70b has not been adequately reported upon, but apparently it could represent some other Guerlinguetus"--P. 6-7.Item Relationships among the living squirrels of the Sciurinae. Bulletin of the AMNH ; v. 118, article 4(New York : [American Museum of Natural History], 1959) Moore, Joseph Curtis."Discovery of a character of the skull that appeared to sort some of the squirrels of the subfamily Sciurinae into the tribes into which they had previously been assignable only on the basis of genital characters resulted in a search for other skull characters for a testing of the existing sciurine classification. Three of the six subfamilies proposed by Pocock (1923) and scaled down to tribes by Simpson (1945), namely, the Xerini, the Tamiasciurini, and the Marmotini, are here shown to be distinguishable by skull characters. The tribes Sciurini and Callosciurini, which possess the most consistently distinctive characters of the baculum (os penis), are accepted as valid tribes on those characters alone. These last two are found to be constituted by three and two phyla, respectively, which are distinguished by characters of the skull and which are recognized as subtribes. The sixth tribe, the Funambulini, is shown by skull characters to consist of three distinct phyla. The tribe Funambulini as restricted is accepted, and two phyla are here raised to tribal rank, the Protoxerini and the Ratufini. Eleven phyla, six of them tribes and five the subtribes of the Sciurini and the Callosciurini, are defined and diagnosed by means of skull characters in considerable detail. Their possible relationships are discussed on the basis of such definitions and diagnoses and other available information. A key to the tribes and subtribes based on characters of the skull is offered, and many genera are for the first time given an adequate diagnosis on characters of the skull. A classification of the Sciurinae is offered which integrates as closely as possible the findings of the present study with what seems validated of earlier work. This consists of eight tribes, 11 subtribes, and 37 genera. Because the problem of whether or not the pygmy squirrels constitute a monophyletic unit had never been adequately treated, the skull character evidence for and against such a concept is here marshalled, considered, and concluded to be strongly against. The pygmy squirrel likenesses apparently represent convergence. An enumeration and comparison of the taxonomic skull characters of the genera of Sciurinae reveal indications of great conservatism in genera occupying the typical tree squirrel niche, and perhaps a basic ground squirrel niche and a long-nosed squirrel niche, whereas genera occupying other sciurine niches appear to have had greater freedom to acquire skull character specializations. The South American genus Sciurillus is thought to be too highly differentiated to have originated in South America, because an isthmus made that continent available to squirrels in the late Pliocene. It is suggested that it evolved in a tropical southern extremity of North America before an isthmus arose"--P. 201.Item The spread of existing diurnal squirrels across the Bering and Panamanian land bridges. American Museum novitates ; no. 2044(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1961) Moore, Joseph Curtis."There are four living phyla of diurnal squirrels with taxa on opposite sides of Bering Strait which are differentiated to a degree that is recognized to be of less than generic rank. For each of these four phyla the greatest range of a single species occupies the principal continuous land mass west of the Strait. Also, for each phylum a greater number of species occurs on the east than on the west. It is suggested that, other things being equal, a species that occupies the large Palearctic range is the dominant species in its phylum, and, when ecological conditions are suitable for a spread across the Bering land bridge, it would be the dominant species that would spread. Some of the more numerous Nearctic species are considered to have evolved from the populations that spread from west to east and then to have become geographically isolated. The Palearctic Region is regarded therefore as the center of dispersal for these diurnal squirrel phyla: the subtribes Sciurina, Tamiina, Spermophilina, and Marmotina. The probable place of origin is shown to be the Nearctic Region for the Tamiina, the Spermophilina, and the Marmotina. The large, relatively unbroken area of the northern Palearctic Region is, and may for a long time have been, the largest area available in the world as a range for a single species of terrestrial vertebrates, and the possibility is noted that it may be the area on which the dominant species are evolved in vertebrate phyla other than diurnal squirrels. If such is the case, the above-described mechanism may be conceded to have contributed importantly to the predominantly eastward spreading across the Bering land bridge recognized by Simpson (1947) and Darlington (1957). Central America, or parts of it, as an island or archipelago must have served as a staging area for the adaptation of squirrel species of Nearctic origin to tropical conditions over perhaps a substantial portion of the Pliocene before the emergence of a Panamanian land bridge gave them access to South America at the end of the Pliocene"--P. 23-24.Item Two occurences of false killer whales, and a summary of American records. American Museum novitates ; no. 1756(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1956) Bullis, Harvey Raymond, 1924-; Moore, Joseph Curtis.