i/: 



HOLOCEPHALl 



to enclose several occipito-spinal nerves. There is a well-defined 

 convex condyle articulating with the vertebral column. 



The notochord in the Holocephali (Hasse [200], Schauinsland 

 [383], Klaatsch [265]) is persistent and unconstricted. It is 



surrounded by a thick fibrous sheath 

 into which mesoblastic skeletogenous 

 cells migrate through the ruptured 

 elastica externa (Fig. 136). These 

 cells form complete rings, which 

 acquire a calcified bone-like struc- 

 ture, and are much more numerous 

 than the segments of the body. In 

 Callorhynchus the rings are not de- 

 veloped ; they are, on the contrary, 

 very strong and closely packed in 

 the extinct Squaloraja (Fig. 137). 

 True centra never occur. There 

 are no ribs. Normal cartilaginous 

 neural and haemal arches are present 

 and do not meet round the noto- 

 chord, except in the modified anterior 

 region. Interneurals (interdorsals) 

 and rarely interhaemals (inter- 

 ventrals) occur, and supradorsals 

 complete the neural tube above. 

 Immediately behind the skull (Fig. 

 134) some dozen or more vertebral 

 segments are fused below the anterior 

 dorsal fin ; here is formed a con- 

 tinuous cartilage enclosing the noto- 

 chord and nerve-cord, and stretching 

 upwards into a dorsal process with 

 which articulates the cartilage of the 

 fin. The axial cartilage tube and 

 its dorsal process ma} 1 be considered 

 as made up of fused vertebrae ; in 

 living genera its compound struc- 

 ture is shown by the numerous 

 nerve apertures, and in the extinct 

 traces of segmentation appear in it 



I — 



7— " 



__._.-MyyjM<»v|y;gry 



^j^l^JA^A^v 



Fig. 13(5. 



Chimaera nwnstrosa, L. Vertebra) 



column : A, transverse section ; B, sirle 

 view : and C, longitudinal median section. 

 (All after Hasse, slightly modified.) 1, 

 interdorsal ; 2, basiventral ; 3, notochord ; 



4. elastica externa and connective tissue ; 



5, fibrous sheath ; 6. calcified ring : 7, basi- 

 dorsalj -S. dorsal nerve-root foramen; 9, 

 ventral nerve-root foramen ; 10, supra- 

 dorsal. 



Squaloraja and Myriacanthus 

 (Fig. 141, B) (Dean [110a]). 



The first dorsal fin is characteristically modified, the radii 

 being represented by the single cartilaginous plate just mentioned, 

 to which is firmly fixed the dorsal spine. The whole fin, spine 

 and all, is movable and can be folded back or erected. In 

 Myriacanthus two or three cartilages support the spine. The 



