36 SHOULDER BLADE CHAP. 
for or serve to push along the rapidly-moving body. Stronger 
fixation is therefore a greater necessity posteriorly than anteriorly. 
In any case, whatever the explanation, this important difference 
exists. : 
The shoulder-blade of mammals is as a rule a much-flattened 
bone with a ridge on the outer surface known as the spine; 
Fig. 25.—Right scapula of 
Dog (Canis familiaris). 
x4. a, Acromion ; af, 
prescapular fossa; ¢, 
coracoid ; cb, coracoid or 
anterior border ; css, in- 
dicates the position of 
the coraco-scapular su- Fia. 26.—Right scapula of 
ture, obliterated in adult 
animals by the complete 
ankylosis of the two 
bones; gb, glenoid or 
posterior border; ge, 
glenoid cavity ; pf, post- 
scapular fossa ; s, spine ; 
Red Deer (Cervus elaphus). 
x4. a, Acromion ; af, an- 
terior or prescapular fossa ; 
c, coracoid ; gc, glenoid 
cavity ; pf, postscapular 
fossa; ss, partially ossi- 
fied suprascapular border. 
88, suprascapular border. (From Flower’s Osteology.) 
(From Flower’s  Oste- 
ology.) 
this ridge ends in a freely-projecting process, the acromion, 
from which a branch often arises known as the metacromion. 
This gives a bifurcate appearance to the end of the ridge. The 
spine is less developed and the scapula is narrower in such 
animals as the Dog and the Deer which simply run, and whose 
fore-limbs therefore are not endowed with the complexity of 
movement seen, for instance, in the Apes. 
It has been pointed out that the area which les in front of 
