Credit: © The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.8575
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    Vertebrae of Squalus maximus [Basking shark]

    Date
    1809
    Creator
    William Clift (1775 - 1849, British) , Illustrator
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (painting): 378mm
    width (painting): 267mm
    Subject
    Biology
       > Anatomy
    Biology
       > Zoology
    Content object
    nature
       > fossil
    nature
       > animal
          > fish
    Description
    Plate 5 from the paper "On the nature of the intervertebral substance in fish and quadrupeds", by Everard Home, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol.99 (1809), pp.177-187. A longitudinal section of one of the intervertebral joints of the squalus maximus, after the fluid had been evacuated, and the parts had been steeped in water. According to a later account by Everard Home, the basking shark [Cetorhinus maximus] was caught at Hastings, purchased by Colonel Bothwell and examined by William Clift before parts of it were brought to London. The work is inscribed above with publication and plate details. Not signed. Royal Society stamp verso and an inscription "Plate V. Next plate to Mr Troughton's last."
    Object history
    An illustration produced for publication in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.
    Associated place
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