OSTEOLOGY. 33 
on either side. It passes externally to the next posterior chevron bone as a 
small tendon and inserts into the antero-ventral end of the chevron bone next 
succeeding. Each muscle therefore skips one chevron bone and inserts upon 
the next but one posterior to its origin. 
OSTEOLOGY.’ 
The cranial characters of Solenodon are now well known. The original 
skull described and figured by Brandt (’33) was incomplete, having lost the 
occipital portion. In his recent paper on this animal, Dr. J. A. Allen (:08) has 
given photographic reproductions of the skulls of old and young. The superior 
outline of the skull is nearly flat, becoming slightly depressed posteriorly. The 
sagittal crest is slightly developed on the posterior half of the skull but in the 
specimens examined was barely over a millimeter in greatest extent vertically 
over the condyles. The lambdoid crests are greatly developed and overhang 
the foramen magnum about 5 mm. The maxillary region increases gradually 
in depth from behind the large first incisors to the molars, where it abruptly 
deepens to the last molar. This depth is retained to the mastoid region, then 
becomes slightly less. The lachrymal foramen is very large, and only 2 mm. 
dorsal to the great antorbital foramen. There are several (4 or 5) small fora- 
mina above the mastoid process for the passage of vessels. In dorsal aspect, 
the most striking peculiarities of the skull are: the deep emargination of the 
nasals, with their median point some 4 mm. posterior to the anterior end of the 
intermaxillaries; the long, parallel-sided snout, occupying slightly more than 
one third the length of the skull; the elongated brain-case, slightly contracted 
at the middle of the orbit, then expanding at the mastoid region and ending in a 
parallel-sided and abruptly truncated occiput. There is a diastema between 
the first and second incisors, at which point is a depression on each side in the 
floor of the palate. The two incisive foramina are at the medial border of each 
pit, and measure 2 mm. in length. The palate is nearly parallel-sided on the 
rostral portion, and expands distally. Minute foramina occur at the ental bases 
of the teeth and posteriorly near the median region but otherwise the palate is 
entire in our specimen. The interpterygoid fossa is deep, and slightly con- 
vergent posteriorly, thus differing from that of S. cubanus in which these walls 
diverge. The hamular processes of the pterygoids are short but sharply con- 
’ 
Since this account was prepared, W. K. Gregory has published a description of the skeleton of S. 
paradoxus (see Bull. Amer. mus. nat. hist., 1910, 27, p. 241-255). 
