SKELETON OF BKUTA. 



403 



269 



Skull of Mijrmecophaga jabata. cli 



The large pelvis, the union of the ischia with the sacrum, and 

 the speedy osseous confluence of the several pelvic elements, are 

 common characteristics of the spinal column of the Bruta : in 

 no other Mammalian order are found such complex vertebral 

 articulations ; and here alone are manifested the exceptional in- 

 stances of affinity to certain Ovipara in the lower cervicals with 

 free ribs of the Three-toed, and in the twenty-three costigerous 

 dorsals of the Two-toed, Sloths. 



B. Skull. — The skull in the insectivorous Bruta is lono; and 

 slender ; these proportions reaching their extreme in true Anteaters 

 {Myrmecophaga, fig. 269). The occipital condyles, 2, are large 

 and terminal ; the superoccipital, 3, inclines forward as it rises to 

 join the parietals, 7, which 

 retain their ' sas^ittal ' suture. 

 The frontals are elongate, 

 and continue the smooth 

 transversely convex cranial 

 roof forward to the nasals, 1 5 ; 

 these are still longer, being 

 coextensive with the maxillaries, 21, which, with the mandible, 

 32, form the walls of the bony tubular sheath of the very long 

 tongue : the premaxillaries are minute; The orbits are feebly 

 defined : the lacrymal, 73, is large and chiefly antorbital. A 

 beginning of the malar is appended to the maxillary : the small 

 squamosal forms the flat surface for the mandibular condyle, but 

 developes no zygoma. The tympanic, 28, retains its separate con- 

 dition. The petrosal is excavated by a hemispheric cavity for 

 the condyle of the stylohyal, the framework of the tongue in 

 the Anteaters almost equalling the mandible in its amount of 

 bone. 



In the Pangolins (^Manis, fig. 270) the cranium also shows the 

 inclination of the occipital 

 surface from below upward 

 and forward, the plane of 

 the foramen magnum being 

 slightly inclined in the 

 same direction. The exoc- 

 cipitals, 2, meet above the 

 foramen. The superocci- 

 pital, 3, is rhomboidal, and 



its aspect is almost wholly upward. The mastoids, 8, form two 

 hemispheric protuberances at the sides of the occipital region, and 

 the petrosals two smaller protuberances at the sides of the base of 



D D 2 



270 



Skull of Munis, cm. 



