Abstract
The chapter includes four subchapters—Wing Membrane, Skeleton, Joints and Musculature, which describe, respectively, the skin membrane, osteology, syndesmology and myology of the shoulder girdle and forelimb in both extant species of the order Dermoptera. Such detailed morphological data were never published before; our current knowledge of colugo’s anatomy is based on one description of Leche with only 37 figures for all organs, summaries of most interesting features made by Chapman and Grasse and study of the wrist osteology by Stafford and Thorington. The description is supplied with 57 original illustrations—49 black-and-white drawings of myological dissections, 7 grayscale and 1 colored photos of the skeleton.
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Notes
- 1.
ZMMU, no. s-113598.
- 2.
ZMMU, no. s-146228.
- 3.
without no.
- 4.
ZMMU, without no.
- 5.
The term processus cranialis was never suggested before for this structure specific to colugos.
- 6.
The palmar surface of the carpus and metacarpus of colugos bears a dense tough hairless pad. It includes several callosities, which are not supplied with muscles. Under the proximal radial callosity, there is a cartilaginous plate connected with the prepollex.
- 7.
The retinaculum flexorum medium (Fig. 2.53) is a wide ligament, which connects the ulnar side of the distal end of the radius and uncinatum with the radial side of the distal end of the radius and the cartilaginous plate of the proximal radial callosity.
- 8.
The retinaculum flexorum profundum of colugos (Fig. 2.54) passes from the ulnar side of the distal end of the radius, scaphocentralolunatum, and the base of metacarpal V to the radial side of the distal end of the radius and prepollex.
- 9.
Digit I of colugos has only one vagina fibrosa in the middle of the proximal phalanx; digits II–V have three vaginae fibrosae each, and all the three are also on the proximal phalanx. The first one is placed just distal to the metacarpophalangeal joint, the second and third are closer to the proximal interphalangeal joint. The second vagina fibrosa is connected by a thin ligament with the capsule of the metacarpophalangeal joint (Fig. 2.52).
- 10.
The retinaculum flexorum superficiale is a thin ligament connecting the pisiforme and prepollex, as in tree shrews.
- 11.
The term aponeurosis palmaris profunda is introduced here for the first time. This aponeurosis originates from the distal edge of the ligamentum palmaris profundum, so that its collagen fibers are perpendicular to this ligament and parallel to the metacarpals (Fig. 2.56). It serves as the place of origin for short adductors of the digits.
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Panyutina, A., Korzun, L., Kuznetsov, A. (2015). Forelimb Morphology of Colugos. In: Flight of Mammals: From Terrestrial Limbs to Wings. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08756-6_2
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