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Odontopteryx

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67-400: O. toliapica Owen , 1873 and see text Genus-level: "Odontornis" Owen , 1873 ( nomen nudum ) Species-level: Neptuniavis minor Harrison & C.A.Walker , 1977 Odontopteryx is a genus of the extinct pseudotooth birds or pelagornithids. These were probably rather close relatives of either pelicans and storks , or of waterfowl , and are here placed in

134-419: A nomen nudum . And though it served as the namesake for a popular alternate common name of the pseudotooth birds – "pseudodontorns" or "pseudodontornids" – that was extensively used in the 20th century, current authors prefer "pelagornithids" because this is less fraught with taxonomic dispute. Pelagornis , the type genus of the family Pelagornithidae, was long unrecognized as a pseudotooth bird as it

201-458: A closer relationship between the two Paleogene genera than either had with Osteodontornis and/or Pelagornis . But even though – due to the lack of better-preserved fossils – a close relationship between Odontopteryx and Dasornis cannot be excluded for sure either, it seems that the Neogene pseudotooth birds all derive from a large Paleogene form – such as Dasornis or (if it

268-403: A deep and long handward-pointing pneumatic foramen in the fossa pneumotricipitalis of the humerus , a latissimus dorsi muscle attachment site on the humerus that consists of two distinct segments instead of a single long, and a large knob that extends along the ulna where the ligamentum collaterale ventrale attached. Further differences between Odontopteryx and Pelagornis are found in

335-559: A distinct genus (as " Odontoptila inexpectata ") but that name is both a nomen nudum and would in any case be a junior homonym of the geometer moth genus Odontoptila and thus unavailable for the bird. Though the Mexican specimen ( MHN-UABCS Te5/6–517, a distal humerus piece) agrees with O. toliapica in size and shape, it is not entirely clear whether the American forms belong in this otherwise Eurasian genus. However, at their time

402-477: A fairly good match in size for the "P." stirtoni holotype . Though the proposed separation of this species in a monotypic genus Neodontornis has been generally rejected, given the fossils' distinctness from P. longirostris in age, features, occurrence and size, it may just as well be appropriate. Pseudotooth bird fossils from Early to Middle Miocene Astoria and perhaps also Nye Formations of Oregon have also been assigned to Pseudodontornis . This

469-722: A great scheme for a National Museum of Natural History, which eventually resulted in the removal of the natural history collections of the British Museum to a new building at South Kensington : the British Museum (Natural History) (now the Natural History Museum ). He retained office until the completion of this work, in December 1883, when he was made a knight of the Order of the Bath . Owen always tended to support orthodox men of science and

536-545: A heavy, pachyderm -like animal, as Owen was proposing, but had slender forelimbs. Owen was granted right of first refusal on any freshly dead animal at the London Zoo. His wife once arrived home to find the carcass of a newly deceased rhinoceros in her front hallway. At the same time, Sir Thomas Mitchell 's discovery of fossil bones, in New South Wales , provided material for the first of Owen's long series of papers on

603-462: A malicious, dishonest and hateful individual. He has been described in one biography as being a "social experimenter with a penchant for sadism. Addicted to controversy and driven by arrogance and jealousy". Deborah Cadbury stated that Owen possessed an "almost fanatical egoism with a callous delight in savaging his critics." An Oxford University professor once described Owen as "a damned liar. He lied for God and for malice". Gideon Mantell claimed it

670-413: A more narrow and less excavated surface between the external condyle and the ectepicondylar prominence , with the pit between these closer to the bone's end. Its quadrate bone , meanwhile, differed from that of Osteodontornis in a very broadly grooved dorsal head, a wide main shaft with a strongly curved lateral ridge and a small and somewhat forward-pointing orbital process. The forward center of

737-469: A statue of Darwin. A bust of Owen by Alfred Gilbert (1896) is held in the Hunterian Museum, London . A species of Central American lizard, Diploglossus owenii , was named in his honour by French herpetologists André Marie Constant Duméril and Gabriel Bibron in 1839. The Sir Richard Owen Wetherspoons pub in central Lancaster is named in his honour. Owen has been described by some as

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804-580: A surgeon's apprentice in 1820 and was appointed to the Royal College of Surgeons in 1826. In 1836, Owen was appointed Hunterian professor at the Royal College, and in 1849, he succeeded William Clift as conservator of the Hunterian Museum . He held the latter office until 1856 when he became superintendent of the natural history department of the British Museum . He then devoted much of his energies to

871-560: A vast array of scientific work, but is probably best remembered today for coining the word Dinosauria (meaning "Terrible Reptile " or "Fearfully Great Reptile"). An outspoken critic of Charles Darwin 's theory of evolution by natural selection , Owen agreed with Darwin that evolution occurred but thought it was more complex than outlined in Darwin's On the Origin of Species . Owen's approach to evolution can be considered to have anticipated

938-413: Is a rather disputed genus of the prehistoric pseudotooth birds . The pseudotooth birds or pelagornithids were probably rather close relatives of either pelicans and storks , or of waterfowl , and are here placed in the order Odontopterygiformes to account for this uncertainty. Up to five species are commonly recognized in this genus. But actually the genus Pseudodontornis is barely more than

1005-423: Is among the smallest pseudotooth birds known to date – but this still means that to would have rivalled, if not exceeded, most living albatrosses in wingspan and the brown pelican ( Pelecanus occidentalis ) in bulk. In life, its head (including the beak) would have been 20–25 cm (8–10 in) long. Unlike in most other pseudotooth birds, its "teeth" are slanted forwards. Like those of its relatives,

1072-597: Is an approximately contemporary species from Zhylga ( Kazakhstan ) that is sometimes placed in Odontopteryx . P. longidentata was described from the Ypresian London Clay of the Isle of Sheppey ( England ); it is probably a junior synonym of Macrodontopteryx oweni (or Odontopteryx oweni ) or – more likely due to its size – Dasornis emuinus . "P." stirtoni is a supposed Neogene member of this lineage. It

1139-488: Is correct, the family name Pelagornithidae could be restricted to the giant lineage, and the Odontopterygidae reestablished as name for the smaller lineage. Macrodontopteryx was initially also included in the Odontopterygidae, but if not a distinct genus it is more likely a young individual of Dasornis . The only smallish Neogene pseudotooth bird known as of 2009 is "Pseudodontornis" stirtoni from New Zealand , which

1206-460: Is known from an incomplete but quite well preserved fossil skull of unknown age and origin; it was bought from a merchant who had acquired it from a sailor returning from Brazil , but the specimen is widely presumed to be actually from the North Sea region. It is tentatively assigned an Eocene age, if only due to the fact that suitable lagerstätten of different age were not known when the specimen

1273-461: Is not actually identical with Pelagornis ) the mysterious P. longirostris – and that the smallish lineage became entirely extinct before the Neogene (perhaps in the Grande Coupure ). In 1891 O. toliapica was proposed as type genus of a family Odontopterygidae ; recent authors generally place all pseudotooth birds in a single family. But if the evolutionary scenario outlined above

1340-452: Is not as markedly elongated back- and downwards as in the Ypresian (Early Eocene) Dasornis and Odontopteryx and seems to be in a more apomorphic condition, which would agree with a late Paleogene , possibly even (like Pelagornis ) Neogene age for the holotype. Its quadrate bone had a broad main shaft like in Odontopteryx which like in that genus bore a broad lateral ridge that

1407-582: Is quite certainly not closely related. One to five (or perhaps more) additional unnamed species are tentatively assigned to the present genus, mainly due to their size and/or forward-angled "teeth": one smaller and one larger than O. toliapica and also from the Late Paleocene or Early Eocene of the Ouled Abdoun Basin in Morocco, one from the mid- Eocene of Uzbekistan , one from Middle Eocene strata of

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1474-518: The BA meeting, where William Flower performed the dissection). Visual evidence of the supposedly missing structures ( posterior cornu and hippocampus minor ) was used, in effect, to indict Owen for perjury: Owen had argued that the absence of those structures in apes was connected with the lesser size to which the ape brains grew, but he then conceded that a poorly developed version might be construed as present without preventing him from arguing that brain size

1541-610: The Early Oligocene Kishima Group and the Late Oligocene Ashiya Group of Japan , but their placement in Odontopteryx is even more uncertain. "Neptuniavis" minor was described from remains assigned to O. toliapica by Richard Lydekker in 1891. However, the supposed procellariiform genus Neptunavis is actually a pseudotooth bird too, and hence the smaller "species" is here synonymized as proposed by Lydekker. The type species "N." miranda , on

1608-521: The Great Exhibition of 1851 , but 33 were eventually produced when the Crystal Palace was relocated to Sydenham , in south London. Owen famously hosted a dinner for 21 prominent men of science inside the hollow concrete Iguanodon on New Year's Eve 1853. However, in 1849, a few years before his death in 1852, Gideon Mantell had realised that Iguanodon , of which he was the discoverer, was not

1675-596: The Isthmus of Panama had not been formed yet. Pseudodontornis tschulensis from the Late Paleocene of Zhylga ( Kazakhstan ) is sometimes placed in Odontopteryx , as is Macrodontopteryx oweni which was also found in the London Clay. In the latter case however, this does not seem to be correct (see below). The species originally described as O. longirostris was made the type species of Pseudodontornis in 1930. Small pelagornithid specimens have also been reported from

1742-582: The Miocene or Pliocene , i.e. a period of 20 million years. The Motunau Beach skull resembles the roughly contemporary Osteodontornis of the North Pacific in having a jugal arch that is short and very stout behind the orbital process of the prefrontal bone – apparently unlike in P. longirostris . But the fossil femur measures 12.95 cm (5.10 in) – only half as large as that of Osteodontornis (or P. longirostris , for that matter). "P." stirtoni

1809-628: The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew botanical collection (see Attacks on Hooker and Kew ), orchestrated by Acton Smee Ayrton : Owen's lost scientific standing was not due solely to his underhanded dealings with colleagues; it was also due to serious errors of scientific judgement that were discovered and publicized. A fine example was his decision to classify man in a separate subclass of the Mammalia (see Man's place in nature ). In this, Owen had no supporters at all. Also, his unwillingness to come off

1876-588: The Tepetate Formation from near El Cien ( Baja California Sur , Mexico ), and one from the Early Eocene of Virginia, USA . As regards the Moroccan fossils, however, the largest of the three Odontopteryx -like forms (initially called " Odontopteryx n. sp. 2") has provisionally been termed "Odontopteryx gigas" but may in fact be a Dasornis , while the smallest (" Odontopteryx n. sp. 1") has been considered

1943-520: The order Odontopterygiformes to account for this uncertainty. One species of Odontopteryx has been formally described, but several other named taxa of pseudotooth birds might belong here too. The type species Odontopteryx toliapica is known from the Ypresian (Early Eocene) London Clay of the Isle of Sheppey ( England ) and slightly older rocks of the Ouled Abdoun Basin ( Morocco ). Its tarsometatarsus (e.g. specimen BMNH A4962)

2010-513: The prefrontal bone , unlike in the large Neogene Osteodontornis . Also, its paroccipital process is much elongated back- and downwards, again like in Dasornis but unlike in Pseudodontornis longirostris . Meanwhile, the distal humerus specimen from Mexico ( MHN-UABCS Te5/6–517) which may or may not belongs in the present genus differs from the corresponding bone of Osteodontornis in

2077-779: The status quo . The royal family presented him with the cottage in Richmond Park and Robert Peel put him on the Civil List . In 1843, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences . In 1844 he became an associated member of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands. When this Institute became the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1851, he joined as a foreign member. In 1845, he

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2144-463: The tarsometatarsus : in the present genus, it lacks a deep fossa of the hallux ' first metatarsal bone and its middle toe trochlea is conspicuously expanded forward. The salt glands inside the eye sockets were far less developed in Odontopteryx than in Pelagornis . As the traits shared between Odontopteryx and Dasornis are probably plesiomorphic however, they cannot be used to argue for

2211-583: The "toothed" beak. One of the species typically placed here – though in fact one that is rather unlikely to actually belong in Pseudodontornis – is the only smallish pseudotooth bird species known with certainty from the Neogene as of 2009. However, the enigmatic Tympanonesiotes was of similar size and may also be of Neogene age. The type species P. longirostris (initially placed in Odontopteryx )

2278-647: The Nature of Limbs in 1849. At the end of On the Nature of Limbs , Owen suggested that humans ultimately evolved from fish as the result of natural laws, which resulted in Owen being criticized in the Manchester Spectator for denying that species such as humans were created by God. Owen, as president-elect of the British Association , announced his authoritative anatomical studies of primate brains, claiming that

2345-632: The Royal Society's Zoological Council for plagiarism . Another reason for his criticism of the Origin , some historians claim, was that Owen felt upstaged by Darwin and supporters such as Huxley, and his judgment was clouded by jealousy. Owen in Darwin's opinion was Owen also resorted to the same subterfuge he used against Mantell, writing another anonymous article in the Edinburgh Review in April 1860. In

2412-510: The Zoo began to publish scientific proceedings, in 1831, he was the most prolific contributor of anatomical papers. His first notable publication, however, was his Memoir on the Pearly Nautilus (London, 1832), which was soon recognized as a classic. Thenceforth, he continued to make important contributions to every department of comparative anatomy and zoology for a period of over fifty years. In

2479-448: The animal were found. Owen envisioned a resemblance of the animal to the living arthropod Limulus . Most of his work on reptiles related to the skeletons of extinct forms and his chief memoirs, on British specimens, were reprinted in a connected series in his History of British Fossil Reptiles (4 vols. London 1849–1884). He published the first important general account of the great group of Mesozoic land-reptiles, and he coined

2546-410: The article, Owen was critical of Darwin for not offering many new observations, and heaped praise (in the third person) upon himself, while being careful not to associate any particular comment with his own name. Owen did praise, however, the Origin 's description of Darwin's work on insect behaviour and pigeon breeding as "real gems". Owen was also a party to the threat to end government funding of

2613-452: The brains of all human races were really of similar size and intellectual ability, and that the fact that humans had brains that were twice the size of large apes like male gorillas, even though humans had much smaller bodies, made humans distinguishable. He was the first director in Natural History Museum in London and his statue was in the main hall there until 2009, when it was replaced with

2680-598: The classification that has long been accepted. Among Mollusca , he described not only the pearly nautilus but also Spirula (1850) and other Cephalopoda , both living and extinct, and it was he who proposed the universally-accepted subdivision of this class into the two orders of Dibranchiata and Tetrabranchiata (1832). In 1852 Owen named Protichnites – the oldest footprints found on land. Applying his knowledge of anatomy, he correctly postulated that these Cambrian trackways were made by an extinct type of arthropod , and he did this more than 150 years before any fossils of

2747-484: The description the genus might actually be a junior synonym of the (probably) Late Oligocene Palaeochenoides , or either or both might properly belong in the otherwise Miocene Pelagornis . Like in that latter genus, between each two of P. longirostris ' large "teeth" was a single smaller one; whether there were even smaller points in addition as in Pelagornis ' allopatric contemporary Osteodontornis cannot be ascertained. Its paroccipital process

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2814-524: The discovery of the Iguanodon , completely excluding any credit for the original discoverer of the dinosaur, Gideon Mantell . This was not the first or last time Owen would falsely claim a discovery as his own. It has also been suggested by some authors that Owen even used his influence in the Royal Society to ensure that many of Mantell's research papers were never published. Owen was finally dismissed from

2881-458: The extinct mammals of Australia, which were eventually reprinted in book-form in 1877. He described Diprotodon (1838) and Thylacoleo (1859), and extinct species kangaroos and wombats of gigantic size. Most fossil material found in Australia and New Zealand was initially sent to England for expert examination, and with the assistance of the local collectors Owen became the first authority on

2948-703: The fence concerning evolution became increasingly damaging to his reputation as time went on. Owen continued working after his official retirement at the age of 79, but he never recovered the good opinions he had garnered in his younger days. Pseudodontornis P. longidentata Harrison & C.A.Walker , 1976 (disputed) P. longirostris (Spulski, 1910) ( type species ) P. stirtoni Howard & Warter, 1969 (disputed) P. tenuirostris Harrison, 1985 (disputed) P. tshulensis (Aver'janov, Panteleev, Potapova & Nesov , 1991) (disputed) and see text Neodontornis Harrison & C.A.Walker , 1976 (but see text) Pseudodontornis

3015-509: The human brain had structures that ape brains did not and that therefore humans were a separate sub-class, starting a dispute which was subsequently satirised as the Great Hippocampus Question . Owen's main argument was that humans have much larger brains for their body size than other mammals including the great apes. In 1862 (and later occasions) Huxley took the opportunity to arrange demonstrations of ape brain anatomy (e.g. at

3082-483: The issues that have gained greater attention with the recent emergence of evolutionary developmental biology . Owen was the first president of the Microscopical Society of London in 1839 and edited many issues of its journal – then known as The Microscopic Journal . Owen also campaigned for the natural specimens in the British Museum to be given a new home. This resulted in the establishment, in 1881, of

3149-550: The name Dinosauria from Greek δεινός ( deinos ) "terrible, powerful, wondrous" + σαύρος ( sauros ) "lizard". Owen used 3 genera to define the dinosaurs: the carnivorous Megalosaurus , the herbivorous Iguanodon and armoured Hylaeosaurus ' , specimens uncovered in southern England. With Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins , Owen helped create the first life-size sculptures depicting dinosaurs as he thought they might have appeared. Some models were initially created for

3216-619: The now world-famous Natural History Museum in South Kensington , London. Bill Bryson argues that, "by making the Natural History Museum an institution for everyone, Owen transformed our expectations of what museums are for." While he made several contributions to science and public learning, Owen was a controversial figure among his contemporaries, both for his disagreements on matters of common descent and for accusations that he took credit for other people's work. Owen became

3283-399: The other hand, is a junior synonym of the large Dasornis emuinus . In a peculiar twist, some material assigned to "N." minor eventually turned out to be remains of the paleognath Lithornis vulturinus ; the very first described bone of Dasornis emuinus on the other hand – a humerus piece – was at first mistaken for to be a Lithornis tarsometatarsus. O. toliapica

3350-616: The palaeontology of the region. While occupied with so much material from abroad, Owen was also busily collecting facts for an exhaustive work on similar fossils from the British Isles and, in 1844–1846, he published his History of British Fossil Mammals and Birds , which was followed by many later memoirs, notably his Monograph of the Fossil Mammalia of the Mesozoic Formations (Palaeont. Soc., 1871). One of his latest publications

3417-645: The quadrate's ventral articulation ridge extends downwards and to the middle, and the pterygoid process is only slightly expanded to the upper center in Odontopteryx . The socket for the quadratojugal is displaced downwards. The quadrate of P. longirostris is not very well preserved; it agees with Odontopteryx in a broad main shaft but is closer to Osteodontornis in the straight main shaft ridge and its upward-directed ventral articulation ridge's forward center. Its quadratojugal socket differs from both. Odontopteryx differed from Pelagornis (a contemporary of Osteodontornis ) and agreed with Dasornis in having

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3484-414: The sponges, Owen was the first to describe the now well-known Venus' Flower Basket or Euplectella (1841, 1857). Among Entozoa, his most noteworthy discovery was that of Trichina spiralis (1835), the parasite infesting the muscles of man in the disease now termed trichinosis (see also, however, Sir James Paget ). Of Brachiopoda he made very special studies, which much advanced knowledge and settled

3551-415: The thin-walled bones of Odontopteryx broke easily and thus very few fossils – though still far more than of the average pseudotooth bird genus – are decently preserved. In combination with its small (for pseudotooth birds) size, some traits allow to identify the present genus. It resembles Dasornis in having a jugal arch that is mid-sized, tapering and stout behind the orbital process of

3618-402: Was "a pity a man so talented should be so dastardly and envious". Richard Broke Freeman described him as "the most distinguished vertebrate zoologist and palaeontologist ... but a most deceitful and odious man". Charles Darwin stated that "No one fact tells so strongly against Owen ... as that he has never reared one pupil or follower." Owen famously credited himself and Georges Cuvier with

3685-630: Was a little work entitled Antiquity of Man as deduced from the Discovery of a Human Skeleton during Excavations of the Docks at Tilbury (London, 1884). Sometime during the 1840s Owen came to the conclusion that species arise as the result of some sort of evolutionary process. He believed that there were a total of six possible mechanisms: Parthenogenesis , prolonged development, premature birth, congenital malformations, Lamarckian atrophy , Lamarckian hypertrophy and transmutation, of which he thought transmutation

3752-441: Was about the size of O. toliapica . Its relationships are completely obscure. [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Richard Owen Sir Richard Owen KCB FRMS FRS (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist , comparative anatomist and palaeontologist . Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils . Owen produced

3819-842: Was believed to be from the Early Miocene Hawthorne Formation , but in fact no Hawthorne Formation sediments were known in the Charleston region when the fossil was found. Consequently, modern authors consider a Chattian (Late Oligocene) age more likely and suggest the fossil came from the Cooper or Chandler Bridge Formation . Some fossil remains from the Middle Miocene Bahía Inglesa Formation of Chile were prematurely affiliated with P. longirostris in error; they are, if anything, of Pelagornis . The holotype skull seems to have been lost, but judging from

3886-629: Was described from a crushed skull and femur found on Motunau Beach on the eastern coast of the South Island, New Zealand . It, too, lacks crucial data; though there are suggestions that it is from the Greta Siltstone Formation or elsewhere in the Late Pliocene ( Waitotaran ) and dates back only 3.5 Ma ( million years ago ) – which would make it one of the last of the pseudotooth birds –, its age can only be constrained to some time during

3953-528: Was discovered. If not from Europe however, its age is truly undeterminable. A pseudotooth bird's lower right dentary piece (specimen YPM 4617) from near Charleston, South Carolina (United States) – apparently dredged up from near the source of the Stono River – was provisionally assigned to P. longirostris as it closely matches the holotype in size and appearance. At first the South Carolina fossil

4020-646: Was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society. He died at home on 15 December 1892 and is buried in the churchyard at St Andrew's Church , Ham , near Richmond, Surrey . While occupied with the cataloguing of the Hunterian collection, Owen did not confine his attention to the preparations before him but also seized every opportunity to dissect fresh subjects. He was allowed to examine all animals that died in London Zoo 's gardens and, when

4087-423: Was for some time in the late 20th century believed to be from a giant procellariiform and called Neptuniavis minor , but specimen BMNH A44096 – the holotype skull described by Richard Owen in 1873 – was the first pelagornithid recognized as such, and not assigned to some other seabird lineage. It was still often allied with Sulidae (boobies and gannets) or Diomedeidae (albatrosses), to which it

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4154-407: Was from one of the large pelagornithids, and the living bird must have had a wingspan of more than 5, quite possibly as much as 6 m (16–20 ft). It is not entirely resolved whether the other four Pseudodontornis are indeed valid and distinct species . P. tenuirostris was proposed for a Late Paleocene - Early Eocene pseudotooth bird from Herne Bay, Kent (England), and P. tshulensis

4221-538: Was known mainly from arm bones. Thus, though the Pelagornithidae were long recognized as very distinct, they were allied with the cormorant and gannet in suborder Sulae (or superfamily Sulides in suborder Pelecanae) before it was recognized that they are actually pseudotooth birds. The presumed family "Pseudodontornithidae", deemed invalid nowadays, had been recognized as pseudotooth birds all along, as they were established based on skull fossils preserving parts of

4288-457: Was not, however, curved, but straight as in Osteodontornis ; like in that genus, the forward center of the quadrate's ventral articulation ridge extended upwards. Unlike in either Odontopteryx or Osteodontornis , the quadrate of P. longirostris had a socket for the quadratojugal that was displaced dorsally. However its relationships may be, there can be no doubt that the mysterious skull

4355-581: Was still the major way of distinguishing apes and humans. Huxley's campaign ran over two years and was devastatingly successful at persuading the overall scientific community, with each "slaying" being followed by a recruiting drive for the Darwinian cause. The spite lingered. While Owen had argued that humans were distinct from apes by virtue of having large brains, Huxley claimed that racial diversity blurred any such distinction. In his paper criticizing Owen, Huxley directly states: Owen countered Huxley by saying

4422-564: Was the least likely. Science historian Evelleen Richards has argued that Owen was likely sympathetic to developmental theories of evolution, but backed away from publicly proclaiming them after the critical reaction that had greeted the anonymously published evolutionary book Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation in 1844 (it was revealed only decades later that the book had been authored by publisher Robert Chambers ). Owen had been criticized for his own evolutionary remarks in his On

4489-554: Was thus marginally larger than the Australian pelican ( Pelecanus conspicillatus ) of our time, or about the size of the small Paleogene pseudotooth bird Odontopteryx toliapica . Also of this species might be a proximal right radius and a distal right humerus – McKee collection A080 183 and A111 182, respectively – from the Waipipian (around 3 Ma) Tangahoe Mudstone Formation at Hāwera on New Zealand's North Island . They are

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