Zoology for Students and General Readers

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H. Holt, 1879 - 719 pages
 

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Page 674 - If we suppose any habitual action to become inherited — and it can be shown that this does sometimes happen — then the resemblance between what originally was a habit and an instinct becomes so close as not to be distinguished.
Page 617 - It must not be overlooked, however, that there is a very striking difference in absolute mass and weight between the lowest human brain and that of the highest ape...
Page 206 - Echinus, etc. The first point of difference from other animals in the development of .all vertebrates is seen in the formation of the dorsal ridges and their closing to form a nerve-canal. This mode of formation of the nervous system is characteristic of the vertebrates alone, except the Ascidians. Another primary character allying the Ascidians to the vertebrates, is the presence of a chorda dorsalis, first seen in the adult Appendicularia by J.
Page 571 - His fur has so much the hue of the moss which grows on the branches of the trees, that it is very difficult to make him out when he is at rest.
Page 508 - It is impossible to look at the conformation of this strange reptile and to doubt that it hopped or walked, in an erect or semi-erect position, after the manner of a bird, to which its long neck, slight head, and small anterior limbs must have given it an extraordinary resemblance.
Page 620 - He is plantigrade; has five toes; separate tarsals and carpals; short heel; flat astragalus, and neither hoofs nor claws, but something between the two; the bones of the forearm and leg are not so unequal as in the higher types, and remain entirely distinct from each other, and the ankle joint is not so perfect as in many of them.
Page 616 - It is very ferocious, bold, never running when approached or attacked by man. It lives on a range of mountains in the interior of Guinea, its habitat, so far as known, extending from a little north of the Gaboon River to the Congo. Thus, to recapitulate, while the gibbons are most remote from man, the orangs approach him nearest in the number of the ribs, the form of the cerebral hemispheres, and other less obvious characters; the chimpanzee is nearest related to him in the form of the skull, the...
Page 319 - ... revolves. At a little later period the embryo throws off an embryonal skin, the thin pellicle floating about in the egg. Still later in the life of the embryo the claws are developed, an additional rudimentary gill appears, and the abdomen grows broader and larger, with the segments 'more distinct; the heart also appears, being a pale streak along the middle of the back extending from the front edge of the head to the base of the abdomen.
Page 365 - ... by rubbing together the upper surface of the front edge of the wings and the under surface of the wing-covers.
Page 333 - ... pass through the fine coatings of the digestive canal by osmosis, and mingle outside of this canal with the currents of blood which pass along the ventral and lateral parts of the body. Into the pyloric end of the stomach empty the urinary tubes, their secretions passing into the intestine. These organs are exclusively depuratory and urinary, relieving the body of the waste products.

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