The Vertebrate SkeletonReynolds, Sidney H. (Sidney Hugh)
Science
The Vertebrate Skeleton
Reynolds, Sidney H. (Sidney Hugh)
Skeleton
The skull in _Polypterus_ (Crossopterygii) shows a great advance
towards the condition met with in Teleostei. The cranium remains to a
great extent unossified, and large dorsal and ventral fontanelles
pierce its walls. It is covered by a great development of membrane
bones, paired nasals, frontals, parietals, supra- and post-temporals,
and dermo-supra-occipitals among others being present. The
palato-pterygo-quadrate bar is fused to the cranium, and in connection
with it the following paired membrane bones appear, palatine, ecto-,
meso- and meta-pterygoid, and further forwards jugal, vomer, maxilla
and premaxillae. The membrane bones developed in connection with each
ramus of the mandible are the dentary, angular, and splenial, in
addition to the cartilage bone the articular. Several large opercular
bones occur. There are also a pair of large jugular or gular plates,
and several large opercular bones.
In Bony Ganoids both cartilage bone and membrane bone is well
developed. The pro-otics and exoccipitals are well ossified, but the
supra-occipital and pterotics are not. Lateral ethmoids are developed,
and there are ossifications in the sphenoidal region which vary in
different forms. The place of the cartilaginous palato-pterygo
quadrate is taken by a series of bones, the quadrate behind and the
palatine, ecto-, meso- and meta-pterygoids in front. In _Lepidosteus_,
however, the palatine and pterygoid are membrane bones, as they are in
_Polypterus_ and the Frog. Paired maxillae, premaxillae, vomers and a
parasphenoid occur forming the upper jaw and roof of the mouth, and a
series of membrane bones are found investing the mandible and forming
the operculum.
In _Amia_[45] membrane bones are as freely developed as they are in
Teleosteans; they include on each side a squamosal, four opercular
bones, a lachrymal, a pre-orbital, one or two suborbitals, two large
postorbitals and a supratemporal; while investing the mandible,
besides the dentary, splenial, angular, and supra-angular, there is an
unpaired jugular. The articular too is double and a mento-meckelian
occurs. In _Amia_ teeth are borne on the premaxillae, maxillae, vomers,
palatines and pterygoids.
Bony Ganoids are the lowest animals in which squamosal bones are
found, and they do not occur in Teleosteans.
The suspensorium in bony Ganoids, as in the Chondrostei, is hyostylic,
and there are two ossifications in the hyomandibular cartilage, viz.
the hyomandibular, and the symplectic.
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