Flower, W.H., 1889. Exhibition of the face of a male African rhinoceros. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1889 November 19: 448-449, fig. 1
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| Location: |
Africa - Eastern Africa - Tanzania |
| Subject: |
Morphology - Horn |
| Species: |
Black Rhino |
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Prof. Flower exhibited the skin of the face of a male African Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros bicornis), shot by Sir John C. Willoughby, Bart., on the eastern side of the base of Kilimanjaro mountain. In addition to the two normal horns, it presented a third, of irregular form, placed in the median line on the lower part of the forehead. Prof. Flower made the following remarks on this specimen:
The anterior horn is 13 ? inches long, measured along its curved anterior surface, or 12 inches measured in a straight line from the side of the base to the apex, and is 20 inches in circumference at the base. The apex is considerably worn and polished. The base of the second horn is, as usual, in contact with the first, and it is 2 inches shorter, measuring 10 inches along the side from base to apex. It is more upright and compressed than the anterior horn. There is an interval of 4 inches between the hinder edge of the base of this and the front of the third horn. This supplementary horn is 5 ? inches in height and 17 ? in circumference at the base, which has an irregular, unsymmetrical, somewhat triangular form. It is composed of the same fibrous structure as the normal horns, but of a coarser character, and showing a tendency to split up into columnar masses, as well as to fray off at the sides. Its surface also shows many irregular transverse linear depressions. The apex is broad, obtuse, and fissured, and has been subjected to a certain amount of attrition. A fissure extending almost to the base separates a distinct columnar piece from the anterior and left corner of the principal mass. Although its general structure is obviously that of true horn, it appears to bear the same relation to those in front of it that a nail growing from a diseased or injured matrix does to a normal healthy nail.
As the horn of the Rhinoceros is only a greatly modified portion of the animal's skin, specialized for its particular function by the immense development of the papillae of the derm and the exaggerated growth of the epidermic covering, it is not surprising that under some abnormal circumstances, perhaps some local irritation of the skin, a horn should bedeveloped on some other partof the surface from that on which they are usually found. Such an occurrence, however, appears to be rare, and I cannot recall one on record - unless the well-known figure by Albrecht D?rer, copied in so many of the old books on Natural History, of an Indian Rhinoceros with a second horn placed between the shoulders, is founded upon fact. The present specimen is certainly interesting as illustrating the method by which such structures as the horn of the Rhinoceros may have been originally developed.
A sketch of the animal is given in Sir John C. Willoughby's lately published work on 'East Africa and its Big Game : The Narrative of a Sporting Trip from Zanzibar to the Borders of the Masai.
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Exhibition of the face of a male African rhinoceros
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