Browsing by Author "Colbert, Edwin Harris, 1905-"
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Item Adaptations for gliding in the lizard Draco. American Museum novitates ; no. 2283(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1967) Colbert, Edwin Harris, 1905-Item The ancestral crocodilian Protosuchus. Bulletin of the AMNH ; v. 97, article 3(New York : [American Museum of Natural History], 1951) Colbert, Edwin Harris, 1905-; Mook, Charles Craig, 1887-1966.; Brown, Barnum."In this paper there are presented a description in detail and a discussion of Protosuchus richardsoni, from the Dinosaur Canyon beds of northern Arizona. It is shown that the Dinosaur Canyon beds are intermediate in position between the typical Upper Triassic Chinle formation below, and the supposed Lower Jurassic sediments above. Consequently, the relationships of the Dinosaur Canyon beds and its contained fossils to the Triassic below or the Jurassic above are a question open to some differences of opinion. Protosuchus is definitely a primitive crocodilian. It is small as crocodilians go, being about 1 meter in length. The skull is rather short and broad and quite crocodilian in many of its features. For instance, the skull roof shows a characteristic crocodilian arrangement of bones, with the squamosal, the parietals, and the frontals enlarged, and with the supratemporal fenestrae reduced in size. The top of the cranial region is quite flat, as is typical of many crocodilians. There is no antorbital fenestra, which is a character diagnostic for the crocodilians. In some respects, however, Protosuchus shows either primitive characters or special features in the skull. The orbit is directed more laterally than in most crocodilians. The snout is short, yet in the front part of the dental series there is a long diastema between the last premaxillary tooth, which is enlarged, and the first maxillary tooth, a most peculiar specialization for a crocodilian. There seemingly are 24 presacral vertebrae in Protosuchus, a number similar to that for the crocodilians, while there are two sacrals and about 35 caudals. The vertebrae are platycoelous, and in the dorsolumbar and caudal regions they have somewhat elongated centra, while the spines are closely comparable in relative height and strength to the vertebral spines in other crocodilians. Protosuchus shows a definite advance towards the crocodilians in the extension of the transverse processes, to which the ribs are articulated by both head and tubercle in the region behind the neck. The shoulder girdle is strongly crocodilian in that the coracoid is greatly elongated to such a degree that it is almost equal to the scapula in size. The bones of the leg are similar to those of the Crocodilia, and the radiale and ulnare in the carpus are elongated fully as much as they are in typical crocodilians of Mesozoic, Cenozoic, and Recent times. The pelvis is characterized by the elongated, rod-like pubis, a crocodilian character, but proximally this bone participates in the acetabulum, whereas in later crocodilians it is completely excluded from the acetabulum. The ischium is large, and the two ischia are joined by an extensive symphysis. The ilium is elongated anteriorly to form a strong process above and in front of the acetabulum. As in the fore limb, the bones of the hind limb are very much like the same bones in other crocodilians. The astragalus and calcancum on the tarsus are enlarged, and the latter bone is characterized by its large, expanded tuber. The fifth digit is reduced to a short, metatarsal hook, a character that is inherited by the crocodilians from their thecodont ancestors. The body armor is heavy. On the back there is a double row of rectangular scutes running along the midline, while the belly and the ventral and lateral surfaces of the tail are protected by smaller rectangular scutes. This array of characters indicates the strong crocodilian habitus of Protosuchus, for it is evident that in most respects this reptile is a true crocodilian. It does retain certain thecodont heritage characters, but these are quite secondary in importance as compared with the crocodilian features that typify the genus. Such resemblances as are apparent between Protosuchus and the thecodonts, especially genera like Aetosaurus and Stegomus, are clearly due to the persistence in Protosuchus of basic thecodont heritage characters or to parallelism in evolution. On the other hand the resemblances between Protosuchus and the South African genera Notochampsa and Erythrochampsa are close and are based on the comparisons of crocodilian habitus characters. Therefore, Protosuchus, Notochampsa, and Erythrochampsa are without much doubt closely related, and are here considered as members of a single family and suborder of ancestral crocodilians"--P. 181.Item Carnivora of the Tung Gur Formation of Mongolia. Bulletin of the AMNH ; v. 76, article 2.(New York : The American Museum of Natural History, 1939) Colbert, Edwin Harris, 1905-; Central Asiatic Expeditions (1921-1930)Item Chalicotheres from Mongolia and China in the American Museum. Bulletin of the AMNH ; v. 67, article 8(New York : American Museum of Natural History, 1934) Colbert, Edwin Harris, 1905-; Central Asiatic Expeditions (1921-1930)Item Coelurosaur bone casts from the Connecticut Valley Triassic. American Museum novitates ; no. 1901(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1958) Colbert, Edwin Harris, 1905-; Baird, Donald.; New England Museum of Natural History.Item Dinosaur stapes. American Museum novitates ; no. 1900(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1958) Colbert, Edwin Harris, 1905-; Ostrom, John H.Item Distributional and phylogenetic studies on Indian fossil mammals. 1, American Museum collecting localities in northern India. American Museum novitates ; no. 796(New York City : The American Museum of Natural History, 1935) Colbert, Edwin Harris, 1905-; Brown, Barnum.; Brown India Expedition (1921-1925)Item Distributional and phylogenetic studies on Indian fossil mammals. 2, The correlation of the Siwaliks of India as inferred by the migrations of Hipparion and Equus. American Museum novitates ; no. 797(New York City : The American Museum of Natural History, 1935) Colbert, Edwin Harris, 1905-; Brown, Barnum.; Brown India Expedition (1921-1925)Item Distributional and phylogenetic studies on Indian fossil mammals. 3, A classification of the Chalicotherioidea. American Museum novitates ; no. 798(New York City : The American Museum of Natural History, 1935) Colbert, Edwin Harris, 1905-; Brown, Barnum.; Brown India Expedition (1921-1925)Item Distributional and phylogenetic studies on Indian fossil mammals. 4, The phylogeny of the Indian Suidae and the origin of the Hippopotamidae. American Museum novitates ; no. 799(New York City : The American Museum of Natural History, 1935) Colbert, Edwin Harris, 1905-; Brown, Barnum.; Brown India Expedition (1921-1925)Item Distributional and phylogenetic studies on Indian fossil mammals. 5, The classification and the phylogeny of the Giraffidae. American Museum novitates ; no. 800(New York City : The American Museum of Natural History, 1935) Colbert, Edwin Harris, 1905-; Brown, Barnum.; Brown India Expedition (1921-1925)Item Fossil mammals from Burma in the American Museum of Natural History. Bulletin of the AMNH ; v. 74, article 6.(New York : The American Museum of Natural History, 1938) Colbert, Edwin Harris, 1905-; Brown, Barnum.; Granger, Walter, 1872-1941.; Gregory, William K. (William King), 1876-; Brown India Expedition (1921-1925)Item A gigantic crocodile from the Upper Cretaceous beds of Texas. American Museum novitates ; no. 1688(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1954) Colbert, Edwin Harris, 1905-; Bird, Roland T. (Roland Thaxter), 1899-; Brown, Barnum.; Sinclair Texas Expedition (1940)Item A gliding reptile from the Triassic of New Jersey. American Museum novitates ; no. 2246(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1966) Colbert, Edwin Harris, 1905-Item The hyoid bones in Protoceratops and in Psittacosaurus. American Museum novitates ; no. 1301(New York City : The American Museum of Natural History, 1945) Colbert, Edwin Harris, 1905-; Falkenbach, Otto, 1878-1952.Item Hypsognathus, a Triassic reptile from New Jersey. Bulletin of the AMNH ; v. 86, article 5(New York : [American Museum of Natural History], 1946) Colbert, Edwin Harris, 1905-Item A Jurassic pterosaur from Cuba. American Museum novitates ; no. 2370(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1969) Colbert, Edwin Harris, 1905-; Brown, Barnum.; Lund, Richard.Item Labyrinthodont amphibians from Antarctica. American Museum novitates ; no. 2552(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1974) Colbert, Edwin Harris, 1905-; Cosgriff, John William."Labyrinthodont amphibians from the Lower Triassic Fremouw Formation of Antarctica are described. These consist of a fragment of a lower jaw collected at Graphite Peak in the Transantarctic Mountains in December, 1967, and various fossils from Coalsack Bluff (west of the Beardmore Glacier and some 140 km., or about 88 miles, northwest of Graphite Peak) during the austral summer of 1969-1970 and from near the junction of the McGregor and Shackleton Glaciers (about 100 km., or about 60 miles, more or less, to the east and a little south of Graphite Peak) during the austral summer of 1970-1971. Two new genera and species are described. Austrobrachyops jenseni is a brachyopid showing resemblances to Batrachosuchus from the Lower Triassic of South Africa and to Hadrokkosaurus from the Middle Triassic of North America. Cryobatrachus kitchingi is a lydekkerinid related to Lydekkerina and Limnoiketes from the Lower Triassic of South Africa. In addition an isolated tabular bone from Coalsack Bluff represents a temnospondyl amphibian of possible capitosaurid or benthosuchid relationships. These fossils supplement the evidence of reptiles collected from the Fremouw Formation, to indicate a probable ligation between Antarctica and South Africa and paleozoogeographic relationships between Antarctica and other parts of Gondwanaland and even of Laurasia"--P. 3.Item Lystrosaurus from Antarctica. American Museum novitates ; no. 2535(New York, N.Y. : American Museum of Natural History, 1974) Colbert, Edwin Harris, 1905-"The Lower Triassic therapsid reptile Lystrosaurus, first discovered in Antarctica in 1969, is now known from rather abundant materials collected from the Fremouw Formation at Coalsack Bluff, Graphite Peak, and McGregor and Shackleton glaciers, during two field seasons of 1969-1970 and 1970-1971. Two species, L. murrayi and L. curvatus, are identified from portions of skulls, both species having been originally described from South American specimens. The bulk of the Antarctic fossils, consisting of postcranial elements is not specifically identified, but is described and figured. Included are tusks, a stapes, vertebrae, the shoulder girdle and forelimb elements, and the pelvic girdle and hind limb elements. The 31 described species of Lystrosaurus are reviewed, and it is suggested that these probably should be reduced to eight or nine, contained within two evolutionary lines, as propsed by Cluver (1971). These are on the one hand Lystrosaurus curvatus (the most primitive species), L. platyceps, and L. rajurkari, and on the other L. murrayi, L. mccaigi, L. declivis, and L. hedini. Lystrosaurus oviceps may be included with the first of the above-named groups, or it may be an intermediate form. Lystrosaurus weidenreichi, known largely from the postcranial skeleton, is of indeterminate status. The species central to the two lines, L. curvatus and L. murrayi, may represent a primary radiation of the genus through an ancient Gondwanaland. The presence of these two species in Antarctica provides strong evidence for the connection of Antarctica with Africa. Lystrosaurus murrayi in India bolsters the evidence that the Indian peninsula likewise was a part of Gondwanaland. Lystrosaurus murrayi (as well as other species) in China may lend weight to the proposal, advanced by Hurley (1971) and others, that China might have been a portion of the Gondwanaland continent. Alternatively the Chinese forms may have reached eastern Asia by a long migration"--P. [1]-2.Item The mammal-like reptile Lycaenops. Bulletin of the AMNH ; v. 89, article 6(New York : [American Museum of Natural History], 1948) Colbert, Edwin Harris, 1905-; Broom, Robert, 1866-1951