OSTEOLOGY. 33 



on either side. It passes externally to the next posterior chevron bone as a 

 small toiuloii and inserts into the antero-ventral end of tlie chevron bone next 

 succeeding. Each muscle therefore skips one chevron bone and inserts upon 

 the next but one posterior to its origin. 



OSTEOLOGY.' 



The cranial characters of Solenodon are now well known. The original 

 skull described and figiu'ed by Brandt ('33) was incomplete, having lost the 

 occipital portion. In his recent paper on this animal, Dr. J. A. Allen ( :08) has 

 given i)hotographic reproductions of the skulls of old and young. The superior 

 outline of the skull is neai'ly flat, becoming slightly depressed posteriorly. The 

 sagittal crest is slightly developed on the posterior half of tlie skull but in tlie 

 specimens examined was barely over a millimeter in greatest extent vertically 

 over the condyles. The lambdoid crests are greatly developed and overhang 

 the foramen magnum about 5 mm. The maxillary region increases gradually 

 in depth from behind the large first incisors to the molars, where it abruptly 

 deepens to the last molar. This depth is retained to the mastoid region, then 

 becomes slightly less. The lachrymal foramen is very large, and only 2 mm. 

 dorsal to tlie great antorbital foramen. There arc several (4 or 5) small fora- 

 mina above the mastoid jirocess for the passage of vessels. In dorsal aspect, 

 the most striking peculiarities of the skull are: the deep emargination of the 

 nasals, with their median point some 4 mm. posterior to the anterior end of the 

 intermaxillaries; tlie long, parallel-sided snout, occupying slightly more than 

 one third the length of the skull; the elongated brain-case, slightly contracted 

 at the middle of the orbit, then expanding at the mastoid region and ending in a 

 parallel-sided and abruptly truncated occijiut. There is a diastema between 

 the first and second incisors, at which point is a depression on each side in the 

 flodr of the palate. The two incisiv(> foramina are at the medial border of each 

 jiit, and measure 2 mm. in length. The palate is nearly parallel-sided on the 

 rostral jiortion, and expands distally. Minute foramina occur at the ental Ijases 

 of the teetli and posteriorly near the median region but otherwise the palate is 

 entire in our specimen. The interptervgoid fossa is deep, and slightly con- 

 vergent posteriorly, thus differing from that of S. cubanus in which these walls 

 diverge. The hamulai- processes of the pterygoids are short but sharply con- 



' Since this account was prepared, W. K. Gregory has puljlished a description of the skeleton of .5. 

 paradfixiis (see Bull. Amer. mus. nat. hist., 1910, 27, p. 241-2.5.5). 



