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Part 126

The Great Sea-Serpent · A. C. Oudemans — chapter 126 of 137 · ~2,578 words · public domain

a.--The members of this section changed their manner of living. They very often crawled on ice, land, and rocks; the long tail was a very inconvenient organ in their new manner of living, consequently all the individuals with a somewhat shorter tail than their congeners’ were better equipped, and survived the others, so that at last a group of animals arose of which the tail has become very short, scarcely, if at all, visible, being enclosed within the tegument of the body, and to make up for this loss, the hind-flappers grew much larger than the fore-flappers. The further characters for this group are: “Without external ears. Form thick and heavy. Anterior portion of the skull greatly swollen, giving support to the enormously developed canines, which form long, protruding tusks. Incisors of deciduous (foetal) dentition 6/6; of permanent dentition 2/6. No postorbital processes, and the surface of the mastoid processes continuous with the auditory bullae.”--This section is called Trichecidae by GRAY in 1821 (afterwards it was named Trichechidae by GRAY in 1825, Broca by LATREILLE in 1825, Campodontia by BROOKES in 1828, Trichecina by GRAY in 1837, Trichechoidea by GIEBEL in 1847, Trichechina by GRAY in 1850, Rosmaridae by GILL in 1866, Rosmaroidea by GILL in 1872, and Odobaenidae by ALLEN in 1880!!!). The section contains only the walruses.

b.--The early forms of this section must have had hind-flappers which were smaller than the fore-flappers, and a tail which was as long as the head, neck and trunk together. The animals were very slender and elongated in form, the neck being somewhat more elongated; external ears, though small, were still present. Further characters are: “Anterior portion of the skull not unusually swollen, and the canines not highly specialized.” They came very seldom aland, and when doing so, they must have only supported themselves on their breast and on their fore-flappers, leaving the long tail always in the water. They swam with vertical undulations, using also sometimes the flappers.--For this section I choose the name of Tenuia, or Animals which are slender.--Very early the section of the Tenuia divided itself into two smaller divisions which are marked below with 1 and 2.--

1.--The members of this division changed their manner of living. They very often crawled on ice, land and rocks; the tail was a very inconvenient organ in their new manner of living, consequently all the individuals with a somewhat shorter tail than their congeners’, were better equipped and survived the others, so that at last a group of animals arose of which the tail has become very short, almost disappearing between the hind-legs which on the contrary to make up for this loss of tail, gradually became larger, so as to become even larger than the anterior feet. The further characters of this group are: “With small external ears. Incisors of deciduous dentition 6/4, only the outer on either side cutting the gum; of permanent dentition 6/4, the two central pairs of the upper with a transverse groove. Postorbital processes strongly developed. Surface of the mastoid processes not continuous with the auditory bullae.”--This division was called Auriculata by PÉRON in 1816, (afterwards also called Otariina by GRAY in 1825, Otariadae by BROOKES in 1828, Arctocephalina by GRAY in 1837, and Otariidae by GILL in 1866) containing the sea-bears and sea-lions.

2.--The members of this division did not accustom themselves to live in the midst of ice and rocks, consequently they retained the long tail, and small hind-legs. As the animals retained also their slenderness and extraordinary litheness, a long neck with a relatively small head must have been of great use to them, and consequently those individuals which had a longer neck than the others survived their less privileged congeners, so that at last a group arose with a very long neck and a comparatively small head. It seems that the external ears disappeared. They never came aland or on ice-floes. They even abandoned the cold regions and currents of the ocean, better liking the warmer parts. Their ordinary mode of swimming is with vertical undulations. Seldom do they swim with the body in a straight line, by means of their flappers. This little division for which I propose the name of Longicaudata, or Long-tailed Animals, consists only of one genus: Megophias RAF., including only one species Megophias megophias (RAF.) OUD., the sea-serpent.

I purposely have not mentioned the genera Squalodon and Stenodon, and the group of Plagiuri (ART., 1735; Physeteres, KLEIN, 1741; Cetacea, BRISS, 1756; Cete, LINN, 1758), as the recent cetologists still differ in opinions as to their relation to Basilosaurus and the Pinnipedia.

I think the following phylogenetic table will in a more practical manner show the rank which in my opinion sea-serpents occupy in the System of Nature.

To many of my readers the above sketch of the rank of the sea-serpent in the System of Nature will no doubt seem to be too bold. They will say that the affinity of the sea-serpent to sea-lions and sea-bears (to the Auriculata) is expressed here too decisively, that, scientifically spoken, the sea-serpent is not yet known, that at best its existence is only beyond a doubt, and that when a specimen fell into the hands of men, it might be shown that the close affinity to the Auriculata was only apparent, and that in reality the relation is more remote. I confess that there is much to say in favour of this reasoning, but at all events the sea-serpent is a true Pinniped. It has four flappers, a hairy skin, and strong whiskers. Its head resembles that of a sea-lion, its long neck resembles that of a sea-lion, its trunk and its foreflappers resemble those of a sea-lion. But these resemblances may be explained as resulting from convergency. When viewed in this way it seems to be more careful to consider the origin of the sea-serpent in the following manner.

The ancestors of Pinnipedia and Basilosaurus, which I have called Propinnipedia, had most probably hind-legs which were smaller than the fore-legs, and most certainly a tail which was nearly as long as the head, neck and trunk together. They had small external ears. Their most successful manner of swimming must have been by means of vertical undulations. It is difficult to believe that the Propinnipedia moved on land; probably they came only from time to time aland, or on the ice, to rest, leaving, however, most probably the long tail in the water. These Propinnipedia divided themselves into two branches.

All the members of the first branch got a tendency to bulkiness. The head grew longer and larger, consequently the neck grew shorter; the jaws grew longer, consequently the teeth began to stand widely apart; in consequence of the little mobility of the head the nostrils, placed at the top of the nose, became turned upwards, or probably got their seat a little more towards the top of the head; and in proportion as the animal got a thick layer of bacon, the hairs became thinly scattered. Probably it is here better to say: in proportion as the animal lost its hairs, it got a thick layer of bacon. The warm-blooded mammals are possessed of the hair, because hair was to them what feathers are to a bird. The air enclosed between the hairs and the feathers is a worse conductor of temperature than the hairs or feathers themselves. As soon as the manner of living has changed so much that air could no longer come between the hairs, the hairs themselves lost their reason of existence, hence a thick layer of bacon gradually replaced them. Probably this is a better way to explain the presence of bacon and the absence of hair, than to say that the hair disappeared because the animals obtained a layer of bacon, and could therefore dispense with them, or that the layer of bacon checked the development of hairs.--In short we may admit that the animals, of which we treat at present, were thinly scattered with hairs. The whiskers in all probability were still present, and even well developed. This branch has wholly become extinct. The fossil remains were called Basilosaurus.

All the members of the second branch did not show a tendency to bulkiness, they retained the relatively small head and well developed neck, the head consequently could very well move on the trunk. These are the Pinnipedia.

Already very early they divided themselves into two sections.

All the members of the first section accustomed themselves to crawl more on land, ice, and rocks, and as the long tail must have been an inconvenient organ in this new manner of living, all the individuals which had a smaller number of caudal vertebrae survived their congeners; consequently a form at last originated with a very short tail our well known order of Pinnipeds for which I now propose the name of Brevicaudata.

All the members however, of the second section accustomed themselves more to the sea, and therefore all the members which were best adopted for this manner of living successively survived their less privileged congeners, and finally the sea-serpents remained; animals which are so excellently adapted to an aquatic life and rapid movement, that their tendency to become extinct can only be explained by the singular phenomenon that colossal animals bring forth very few young ones, only two, or only one, at a time, and only after very long intervals. For these animals I already proposed above the name of Longicaudata. They form with the Brevicaudata the order of Pinnipedia.

If this view is better, (and who will tell us this with any certainty?) the phylogenetic table should be altered as follows:

Auriculata. Trichecidae. | | Living. | | Gressigrada. Inauriculata. | | | | Longicaudata. Brevicaudata. | | ------------------+---------+------------------------------------ | | Long-tailed early forms Basilosaurus. of Pinnipedia. | Extinct. | | | | Propinnipedia, long-tailed ancestors of Pinnipedia and Basilosaurus.

In the first table I have tried to show two things.

Firstly:--With a horizontal dotted line I have separated the still living animals or groups from those who have become extinct; the former are placed above, the latter beneath the dotted line.

And Secondly:--With the different lengths of the vertical dotted lines I have tried to show the different relative lengths of time-periods wanted by the different species or groups to be formed, so to speak, from that species or group which in this table is placed exactly beneath it, and with which it is united by a dotted line.

It is clear that the evolution must have happened, geologically spoken, with extreme rapidity there, where the animals were entirely changing their manner of living, be it from a terrestrial one into an aquatic one, or otherwise; and that the evolution happened less rapid, or even, geologically spoken, very slowly, where the animals remained terrestrial or aquatic beings, and only changed their manner of living in so far, that they became troglodytes or semi-troglodytes, or became from carnivorous only piscivorous or semi-carni-semi-piscivorous. I believe that by this hypothesis the problem is solved why remains of Basilosaurus are already found in Eocene layers together with remains of Viverrine ancestors of Carnivora, Pinnipedia and Basilosaurus, whilst those of true Pinnipedia, Lutrina and Mustelina appear for the first time during the Miocene period, and whilst remains of true Viverra’s (the genus) do not seem to have made their appearance before the Pliocene period.

APPENDIX.

Since the book was written, I have corresponded with Prof. Dr. M. FORSTER HEDDLE, of St. Andrews, Mr. J. A. HARVIE BROWN, of Dunipace (Larbert), Misses KATE and FORBES J. MACRAE, both of Heathmount (Inverness), Mr. GILBERT BOGLE, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, Prof. R. COLLETT, of Christiania, and Mr. R. P. GREG, of Coles (Buntingford). The five first-named corresponded with me as eye-witnesses, and kindly sent me their statements, written immediately after the appearances they had witnessed; Prof. COLLETT courteously presented me with a copy of his dissertation Lidt om Soe-Ormen eller Soe-Slangen; Mr. GREG who since many years has been collecting with great zeal accounts and reports concerning the matter, had the rare liberality to send me his whole collection to make use of. To all these ladies and gentlemen I feel here called upon to tender my warmest thanks.

Space does not allow me to give a verbal reprint of the various hoaxes, would-be sea-serpents, reports, and principal contents of papers, nor to treat of them separately. This I leave for an eventual second edition. But all the appearances which I have placed under the Reports and Papers are explicable by reference to the Megophias. With the initials “R. P. G.” I have marked those statements, accounts, etc., which I got from Mr. R. P. GREG.

Literature.

Besides the newspapers, dissertations, and books, mentioned in the subsequent parts, the following are additions to my first chapter:

*1707.--F. LEGUAT. Voyage et aventures en deux isles désertes des Indes Orientales. *18.....--Het Nederlandsch Magazijn. *1874, February.--The Cape Monthly Magazine. *1875.--The Shipping Gazette, London. *1875.--The Daily Telegraph. 1879, September 25?--The Royston Crow.--(R. P. G.). *189...--BASSETT, Sea-phantoms; or legends and superstitions of the sea and sailors in all lands and all times. Chicago.

Hoaxes.

The account of captain L. BIJL, of 1858, July 9, (see p. 96) must be a hoax, for 1. 27° 27′ N. lat. and 14° 51′ E. long. is a point in the middle of North-Africa, and 2. even if E. long, were a misprint instead of W. long., it is impossible that a barque should travel over such a distance as from 27° 27′ N. lat. and 14° 51′ W. long, to 37° 55′ S. lat. and 42° 9′ E. long. in nine days!

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