MAC CURDY HUMAN SKULLS FROM GAZELLE PENINSULA. 7 



The external auditory meatus is not affected, in a single 

 instance, by exostoses. 



Foramen pterygo-spinosum. The spheno-pterygoid fora- 

 men is formed by the ossification of the ligamentum pterygo- 

 spinosum. It occurs as follows in the series from Gazelle 

 Peninsula: 



No. 18282, male. Right side, the foramen is complete, 

 the processes from the pterygoid lamina and spina angularis 

 meeting in a suture line. On the left side, the two processes 

 lack 12 mm. of joining. 



No. 11613, female. On right side, a completely ossified 

 ligament forming a small spheno-pterygoid foramen. 



No. 11614, female. Processes for attachment of the liga- 

 ment at either end, 5 mm. apart on right side, and 6 mm. 

 apart on left side. 



Turner found the spheno-pterygoid foramen with com- 

 plete osseous boundaries in three skulls of the Challenger 

 series. According to Roth, 1 the percentage of occurrences for 

 287 Europeans is 4.8. Its percentage with partial and com- 

 plete bony walls, is much higher among some races: Asiatics, 

 32 per cent; Australians and Papuans, 50 per cent; Africans, 

 30.6 per cent; American Indians, 20 per cent. 



The Pars tympanica (anterior portion) of the temporal 

 bone is either perforated or extremely thin in two male (i 1617, 

 11615) and three female crania (11614, 18283, 11613). Fi ye 

 males (Nos. 18280, 11610, 11612, 16911, 18282) and two 

 females (18283, 1 1609) have prominent para-mastoid processes. 



There is a prominent third occipital condyle in No. 18283. 

 This anomaly 2 is important in that it admits of comparisons 

 being made with the single median condyle of birds and scaly 

 reptiles. J. F. Meckel 3 was the first to call attention to the 

 condylus tertius in man. In a series of 876 crania at Leiden, 

 Dr. Halbertsma found seven well developed cases of the third 



1 Arcbiv fiir Antbropologie, XIV, 73. 



2 Blake, Anthropological Review, V, p. CXVII. 



3 Meckel's Arcbiv, 1815, I, 644. 



