The Vertebrate SkeletonReynolds, Sidney H. (Sidney Hugh)
Science
The Vertebrate Skeleton
Reynolds, Sidney H. (Sidney Hugh)
Skeleton
In the ant-eaters (Myrmecophagidae) there are seventeen or eighteen
thoraco-lumbar vertebrae, all of which except two or three bear ribs.
The posterior thoracic and anterior lumbar vertebrae articulate in a
very complex fashion, second, third, and fourth pairs of zygapophyses
being progressively developed in addition to the ordinary ones, as the
vertebrae are followed back.
In the Armadillos the lumbar vertebrae have long metapophyses which
project upwards and forwards and help to support the carapace. In
_Glyptodon_ almost all the thoraco-lumbar vertebrae are completely
ankylosed together.
In the Manidae there are no additional zygapophyses but the normal
ones of the lumbar and posterior thoracic regions are very much
developed, the postzygapophyses being semi-cylindrical and fitting
into the deep prezygapophyses of the succeeding vertebra.
In the SIRENIA the number of lumbar vertebrae is very small; in the
dugong there are nineteen thoracic and four lumbar, and in the manatee
seventeen thoracic and two lumbar.
In the CETACEA the number of thoracic vertebrae varies from nine in
_Hyperoödon_ to fifteen or sixteen in _Balaenoptera_, and the number
of lumbar vertebrae from three in _Inia_ to twenty-four or more in
_Delphinus_. The lumbar vertebrae are often very loosely articulated
together and the zygapophyses sometimes as in the Dolphins are placed
high up on the neural spines. The centra are large, short in the
anterior region but becoming longer behind. The epiphyses are
prominent, and so are the neural spines and to a less extent the
metapophyses. The transverse processes are well developed, anteriorly
they arise high up on the neural arch, but when the vertebral column
is followed back they come gradually to be placed lower down, till in
the lumbar region they project from the middle of the centra. This can
be well traced in the Porpoise (_Phocaena_). In the Physeteridae the
transverse processes of the anterior thoracic vertebrae are similar to
those of most Cetacea, but when followed back, instead of shifting
their position on the vertebrae, they gradually disappear, and other
processes gradually arise from the point where the capitulum of the
rib articulates.
UNGULATA. In the Ungulata vera the thoraco-lumbar vertebrae are
slightly opisthocoelous. The anterior thoracic vertebrae commonly have
exceedingly high backwardly-projecting neural spines (fig. 89, 1); but
those of the lumbar and posterior thoracic vertebrae often point
somewhat forwards so that the spines all converge somewhat to a point
called the _centre of motion_ (cp. fig. 101). In the Artiodactyla
there are always nineteen thoraco-lumbar vertebrae, and in the
Perissodactyla twenty-three.
_Procavia_ sometimes has thirty thoraco-lumbar vertebrae, a greater
number than occurs in any other terrestrial mammal; twenty-two of
these are thoracic and eight lumbar. In _Phenacodus_ the convergence
of the neural spines to a centre of motion is well seen.
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