VERTEBRAE OF THE CROCODILE. 99 



quite suppressed, and the posterior one more developed 

 and produced more downwards, so as to form the body of 

 the rib, which terminates, however, in a free point. In 

 the ninth cervical, the rib is increased in length, but is 

 still what would be termed a "false" or "floating rib" in 

 anthropotomy. 



In the succeeding vertebra the pleurapophysis articulates 

 with a h^mapophysis, and the haemal arch is conipleted 

 by a haemal spine; and by this completion of the typical 

 segment we distinguish the commencement of the series 

 of dorsal vertebrae (/6.), D. With regard to the so-called 

 "perforation of the transverse process" this equally exists 

 in the present vertebra, as in the cervicals ; on the other 

 hand, the cervical vertebrae equally show surfaces for the 

 articulation of ribs. The typical characters of the seg- 

 ment, due to the completion of both neural and haemal 

 arches, are continued in some species of crocodilia to the 

 sixteenth, in some {crocodilus acutus) to the eighteenth 

 vertebra. In ih.Q crocodilus acutus and the alligator lucius 

 the h^mapophysis of the eighth dorsal rib (seventeenth 

 segment from the head) joins that of the antecedent ver- 

 tebra. The pleurapophyses project freely outwards, and 

 become " floating^ ribs" in the eiofhteenth, nineteenth, and 



O Oil 



twentieth vertebras, in which they become rapidly shorter, 

 and in the last appear as mere appendages to the end of 

 the long and broad diapophyses : but the hsemapophyses 

 by no means disappear after the solution of their union 

 with their pleurapophyses; they are essentially independ- 

 ent elements of the segment, and they are continued, 

 therefore, in pairs along the ventral surface of the abdo- 

 men of the crocodilia, as far as their modified homotypes 

 the pubic bones. They are more or less ossified, and are 

 generally divided into two or three pieces. 



