32 CERVICAL VERTEBRA. [chap. 



is frequently hollowed in the middle, and produced at each 

 extremity, so that the transverse process has a trifid appear- 

 ance. This is especially marked in the Felidce. The trans- 

 verse process of the seventh vertebra has no inferior lamella, 

 and its base is imperforate. 



t 



Fig. 12. — Side view ot axis of Dog, 3. s spinous process; o odontoid process ; pz t 

 posterior zygapophysis ; t transverse process ; v vertebrarterial canal. 



Metapophyses are generally more or less developed on the 

 cervical vertebrae of the Carnivora, and there are also in 

 some genera small backward projecting tubercles {hyper apo- 

 physes, Mivart) situated on the laminae of the arch, rather 

 internal to the posterior zygapophyses, not usually found in 

 other vertebrae. 



In the Insectivora, the cervical vertebrae vary consider- 

 ably in their characters. The atlas has usually short trans- 

 verse processes. Generally the spinous process of the axis is 

 large and prominent, and that of the other vertebrae very 

 small, but in Centetes and Potamogale they are all more or less 

 elongated. The neural arches in some (as Myogale and 

 Sorex) are reduced to mere filaments. In the mole (Ta/pa) 

 the transverse processes of the fourth, fifth, and sixth 

 vertebrae are much expanded antero-posteriorly, and overlap 

 each other. Large single hypapophyses are developed from 

 the inferior surface of most of the cervical vertebrae in the 

 Shrews (Sorex) and some of their allies, and in GaleopitJiecus 



