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COMPARATIVE MORPHOLOGY OF VERTEBRATES. 



THE DERMAL MUSCLES. 



The muscles already mentioned are connected with the skeleton, 

 but in the higher vertebrates a dermal musculature appears in which 

 the muscles are inserted in the skin, although they are derived from the 

 skeletal muscles. This system is poorly developed in the amphibia, 

 and increases in the reptiles and birds, where it serves to move the 

 scales, scutes and feathers. It is especially noticeable in the snakes, 

 where it is largely concerned in the movement of the scutes in 

 creeping. 



The system acquires its greatest development in mammals. In the 

 marsupials, for instance, there is an extensive dermal musculature, the- 

 panniculus carnosus, covering a large part of the body and the ap- 

 pendages. It is by means of this that various mammals twitch the 



FIG. 142. Principal dermal muscles of head of man. aa, as, auriculares anterior and 

 superior;/, frontalis; m, masseter; oc, occipitalis; oo, orbicularis oris; op, orbicularis pal- 

 pebrarum; pm, platysma myoides; s, sternocleidomastoid; t, trapezius. 



skin to dislodge insects, etc., while armadillos and hedgehogs roll them- 

 selves into a ball by means of a part of the layer. In the primates the 

 dermal muscles are restricted to the neck (platysma myoides) and the 

 head, all parts of them being supplied by the facial nerve belonging 

 primitively to the hyoid region. The platysma extends forward from 

 the neck and by growth and division gives rise to the muscles of ex- 

 pression the orbiculares which close the lips and eyelids, the muscles 



