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PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM 



VOL. 70 



siderable variation in the precise shape of the basihyal, which, in 

 the older specimens at hand, has a spread of from 85 to 98 mm. 

 There is equally great variation in the length of the ceratohyals, 

 and in two specimens the left one of this pair is definitely the longer. 

 The stylohyals are about four times as long as these, and their 

 terminal portions fit into depressions upon the border of the 

 exoccipitals. 



At roughly 20 mm. from the distal end of the stjdohyals is a 

 considerable thickening of the bone which might at first glance be 

 considered to have resulted from muscle stress. Reference to No. 

 240001 indicates, however, that such is not the case, for this portion 

 of both bones is " staggered " craniad and obliquely ossified to the 

 remainder of the stylohyal. This condition is obviously due to an 



/tE-R^TOHYAU 



mLOH-YO\D. 



FiG. 4. — Hyoid complex of neomeris^ showing position of muscle 



ATTACHMENTS 



irregularity in the position or relation of the centers of ossification 

 concerned, and could hardly have been caused by any early fracture. 

 The evidence, therefore, seems practically conclusive that what is 

 here termed the stylohyal is a composite bone consisting of two com- 

 ponents that originally represented a tympanohyal and a stylohyal. 

 The ceratohyal as here designated, therefore, probably contains ele- 

 ments of both this bone and an epihyal. I believe that the latter is 

 usually the one of this pair that first shows the effects of eliminating 

 or reducing influences, but whether this is actuallj^ the case in the 

 present instance can be determined only from embryological 

 evidence. 



VERTEBRAL COLUMN 



In presenting vertebral measurements it must be borne in mind 

 that the intervertebral cartilages, or at least many of them, have been 

 eliminated during cleaning of the skeleton, and hence these measure- 

 ments are an indeterminate degree smaller than would have been 

 the case could they have been taken before preparation of the 



