PROFESSOR FLOWER ON THE RECENT ZIPHIOID WHALES. 227 
and posterior edges of the arch until between the eighth and ninth dorsal vertebre 
inclusive, but not developed between the ninth and tenth. 
Metapophyses first appear as distinct tubercles on the transverse processes of the 
third, and gradually increase in size and become more compressed, pointing forwards 
and slightly upwards. 
Articular surfaces for the heads of the ribs are developed only on the hinder edges of 
the bodies, without any corresponding surface on the anterior edge of the next vertebra, 
so that the head of the rib appears not to articulate directly with the body of the same 
vertebra to which the tubercle is attached, but only to the one in front of it. In the 
first vertebra this surface is entirely on the side of the body, in the second at the 
junction of the body and the arch, from the third to the seventh at the root of the 
pedicle of the arch ; on and after the eighth it is absent altogether, and the rib is attached 
only to the transverse process. 
The transverse processes, in a line with the upper transverse processes (diapophyses) of 
the cervical region, are short and thick, with large rounded articular extremities for the 
tubercles of the ribs. In the seventh vertebra this process is small, and in the eighth 
reduced to a mere low longitudinal ridge on the outside of the metapophysis, which 
has here acquired a considerable size. In the ninth vertebra a large and massive process 
springs from the upper part of the side of the body near the anterior edge, in a situation 
corresponding to which no trace of a process exists on any of the vertebre in front. It 
has a large articular surface at its extremity, looking somewhat backwards, for the 
ninth rib. The tenth vertebra bears a corresponding process, but rather longer, more 
depressed, wider from before backwards, situated rather lower on the side of the body, 
and not quite so near its anterior edge. Its articular surface (for the tenth rib), also 
directed obliquely backwards, is not so large as that of the ninth. This process corre- 
sponds serially with the transverse processes of the lumbar vertebre. 
Berardius thus conforms to the type of the Physeteride in the transverse processes of 
the dorsal vertebree not gradually sinking from the arch to the body, as in the true 
Dolphins, but disappearing near the end of the series, and being replaced by a new 
process; but it differs from Physeter, and exactly agrees with Mesoplodon’, in not 
having both upper and lower processes developed simultaneously on several of the 
vertebree. Hyperoodon approaches nearer to Physeter in this characteristic feature, as 
its seventh thoracic vertebra has distinct upper and lower transverse processes, which in 
some specimens completely unite at their extremities, so as to form a ring, to the outer 
edge of which the rib is attached. 
The twelve lumbar vertebre are very much alike. Their bodies increase in size 
towards the hinder end of the series, where they are remarkably elongated. Below 
1 In the skeleton of Sowerby’s Mesoplodon in the Brussels Museum, the upper process continues as far as 
the seyenth vertebra, and the lower process commences abruptly on the eighth. 
VOL. VIII.—PART 11. September, 1872. 2. 
