Carinatae Sentence Examples
The fourteen orders of the Carinatae are further congregated into four " Legions ".
The Ratitae branched off, probably during the Eocene period, from that still indifferent stock which gave rise to the Tinami+Galli+Gruiformes, when the members of this stock were still in possession of those archaic characters which distinguish Ratitae from Carinatae.
It follows that new groups of Ratitae can no longer be developed since there are no Carinatae living which still retain so many low characters, e.g.
The most novel feature, and one the importance of which most ornithologists of the present day are fully prepared to admit, is the separation of the class A y es into two great divisions, which from one of the most obvious distinctions they present were called by its author Carinatae' and Ratitae, 2 according as the sternum possesses a keel (crista in the phraseology of many anatomists) or not.
The separation of the Ratitae from the other birds, and their seemingly fundamental differences, notably the absence of the keel and of the power of flight, induced certain authors to go so far as to derive the Ratitae from the Dinosaurian reptiles, whilst Archaeopteryx (q.v.) and the Carinatae were supposed to have sprung from some Pterosaurian or similar reptilian stock.
At any rate we begin to see that some of the Ratitae, namely the Rheidae, may possibly be an early and then much modified offshoot of such of the Carinatae as are now represented by the Crypturi, whilst in another part of the world, and at a much later time, kiwis and moas have sprung from a somewhat more Gallilorm stock, which points to a descent from a still undivided GalliformTinamiform mass.
Huxley in his often-quoted paper in the Zoological Proceedings (1867, pp. 4 2 5, 426) was enabled to place the whole matter in a clear light, urging that the Tinamous formed a very distinct group of birds which;, though not to be removed from the Carinatae, presented so much resemblance to the Ratitae as to indicate them to be the bond of union between those two great divisions.
There is no evidence, so far as we can see, of his having been aware of Merrem's views; but like that anatomist he without hesitation divided the class into, two great " coupes," to which he gave, however, no other names than " Oiseaux normaux " and" Oiseaux anomaux "-exactly corresponding with his predecessor's Carinatae and Ratitae-and, moreover, he had a great advantage in founding these groups, since he had discovered, apparently from his own investigations, that the mode of ossification in each was distinct; for hitherto the statement of there being five centres of ossification in every bird's sternum seems to have been accepted as a general truth, without contradiction, whereas in the ostrich and the rhea, at any rate, L'Herminier found that there were but two such primitive points, 3 and from analogy 1 Their value was, however, understood by Gloger, who in 1834, as will presently be seen, expressed his regret at not being able to use them.
The Carinatae are divided, according to the formation of the palate, into four " Suborders," and named (i.) Dromaeognathae, (ii.) Schizognathae, (iii.) Desmognathae, and (iv.) Aegithognathae.'
We restrict the origin of the Ratitae to that great branch of still primitive Carinatae which, after separation of the Ratitae, has further developed into the legion of the Alectoromorphae, notably Tinamiand Galliformes, together with still low Gruiformes (see BIRD, Classification).
Advertisement