186 SHUFELDT. 



of plates), while in others it is very complete and rather thick (3, 3). 

 Again, the scapula in different individuals is prone to vary in some of 

 its characters, but to no greater extent than we find among a series of 

 himaan seapulfe chosen from adults of the same sex and race. One of 

 the skeletons sent by McGregor (2) has the scapula thoroughly ossified, 

 quite perfect, and presenting all the characters of the bone as they occur 

 in our subject. It is here seen to be a distinctly triangular l)one with 

 all its parts highly developed. 



Facing upward and inward, the glenoid cavity is rather extensive; 

 the concavity is pear-shaped in outline, and the small end extends upon 

 the base of the coracoid process. From the glenoid cavity to the inferior 

 angle we have the exteimal or axillary border, which here presents a 

 notable departure from mammalian scapulse generally in being broad 

 and flat for almost its entire length to the lower point of the bone. This 

 flat border is of uniform width to its termination, that is about 4 milli- 

 meters, and appears as if it had been formed by bending that much 

 of the blade of the bone abruptly, at a right angle toward the spine, 

 thus creating a deep "infraspinous fossa," but adding nothing to the 

 ventral aspect of the bone. The vertebral or internal border is not as 

 long as the axillary one, and its margin is only very slightly thickened 

 for its entire length. The two borders make an angle of 30° with 

 each other, and the angle thus formed, or the inferior angle of the 

 scapula, is here rounded off rather than acute; the sizable bit of tlie 

 apex, evidently formed from the usual independent center of ossification, 

 has not yet united with the blade of the bone.^" The superior border, 

 extending from the inner base of the coracoid process to the angle 

 which in anthropotomy is known as the "superior angle," is here sharp 

 and imiformly concave throughout its length. The superior angle 

 is about a right angle and is rounded as in most mammalian scapulse. 

 The superior border is only about one-half as long as the axillary one; 

 the vertebral border stands between the two in this respect. A supra- 

 scapular notch hardly exists in the superior border near the coracoid 

 process; indeed, although the greatest concavity of the border here is 

 where it usually occurs, no such break in it» continuity is to be dis- 

 tinguished. At its narrowest part the neck of the scapula measures 

 just 1 centimeter, and likewise this is the thickest part of the bone 

 antero-posteriorly, it being about 0.5 centimeter just within the glenoid 

 cavity. 



'" This indicates that the animal was still in a subadult stage when killed. 

 Complete union has taken place in the other two specimens ( 1 and 3 ) from which 

 we conclude that they are more advanced in age. In the human species it is not 

 until the sixteenth year that this epiphysis unites with the rest of the scapula at 

 this point. 



