MAXILLARY AND VOMER BONES OF POLYPTERUS 381 
him in other specimens; and Smith Woodward (’91) says, in his 
list of the characteristic features of the Coelacanthidae, that this 
bone, also called by him the palatine, is furnished with more or 
less formidable teeth. These teeth were quite certainly arranged 
in line along the lateral edge of the bone, and hence formed an 
anterior continuation of the teeth on the maxillary of Huxley’s 
descriptions, these two bones together thus corresponding ex- 
actly to the tooth-bearing component of the maxillary of Polyp- 
terus, but here not yet fused with each other and with the 
overlapping suborbital bones. On the anterior end of the snout 
there is a triangular bone, beset with small cylindrical teeth, 
which Huxley considered to be either the fused premaxillaries or 
the vomer. 
Macropoma thus probably had a maxillary bone similar to 
the tooth-bearing component of the maxillary of Polypterus, 
but the single bone of Polypterus was represented by two sepa- 
rate bones. The anterior one of these two bones of Macropoma 
might be part of an holostean maxillary, but the other one 
certainly could not be part of such a bone. Fritsch (’78), in a 
specimen of Macropoma speciosum shows these two bones of 
Huxley’s descriptions fused to form a single bone, and imme- 
diately in front of, and in line with it, he shows a well-developed 
premaxillary. . 
Posterior to the maxillary, there is a bone that Huxley calls 
the postmaxillary. It is said by him to be an elongated tri- 
angular bone which fills up the interval between the suborbitals 
opercula, and mandible, and covers the quadrate articulation. 
Its anterior corner abuts against the hind end of the maxillary, 
and it is in contact dorsally with the suborbitals. Reis (’88, 
pp. 74 to 79) says that the upper one of its three corners lies 
upon the outer surface of the pterygoid, that it projects laterally 
(seitlich) into the buccal cavity, and that its oral surface is covered 
with tooth-like structures (Zahnstreifen oder Zahnkérnchen). It 
is said to lie internal to the quadratojugal and jugal, and in a 
figure (l.c., fig. 11, pl. 5) giving a diagrammatic transverse 
section through this part of the head, it is shown extending up- 
ward internal to the suborbital bones, along the lateral surfaces 
