Re: UNGUALS

["Matthew Bonnan" <mbonnan@hotmail.com>]

Darren Naish wrote:
"Those familiar with dinosaur morphology, but perhaps not with that of
mammals or other vertebrates, often think that ungual = claw. My take
on the situation (please correct me if I'm wrong) is that unguals are
those distal phalanges that have a visible attachment area on the palmar
surface for the distal pad of the digit: they do not necessarily have
anything to do with claws. Indeed, the term was first used in human
anatomy and ungulates are so called because they walk on their
unguals."

Thanks for clarifying.  Yes, in reptiles generally the most distal phalanx 
(for those who don't know, phalanx is the singular of phalanges) is a bony 
claw core covered by a living claw.  In other vertebrates like mammals, an 
ungual is usually considered to be the most distal phalanx that bears a 
claw, hoof, nail, etc.-- at least, that's my understanding.  I guess I was 
just speaking dinosaurese before. =)

Matt Bonnan

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