294 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



SECTION OP BIOLOGY 



13 November, 1916 



The Section rnet at 8 :15 p. m.^ Vice-President H. von W. Sclmlte pre- 

 siding. 



The section made the following nominations for officers for 1917 : 



Chairman of the Section and Vice-President of the Academy, Pro- 

 fessor H. von W. Schulte, Department of Anatomy, Columbia University. 



Secretary, Professor W. K. G-regory, American Museum of Natural 

 History. 



The Secretary was instructed to transmit these nominations to the 

 Council. 



Upon request of the Secretary the Chair appointed a Committee of 

 two, consisting of Professor Pike and the Chairman, to examine and 

 correct the minutes of the meetings of the past year, for publication in 

 the Eecords. 



The following program was presented: 



J. D. Keman and On" the Architecture of Two Cetacean Skulls., 



H. von W. Schulte, Xiphius and Kogta. 



W. D. Matthew, Some Eesults op American Museum Explora- 

 tions FOR Fossil Mammals During the Past 

 Summer. 



S[immary of Paper 



Dr. Keman and Professor Schulte stated that the material for the 

 following comparison of a skull of Eogia was from an individual about 

 two-thirds grown, partially disarticulated, and a cranium of a full-term 

 foetus of Ziphius cavirostris, both in the collection of the American 

 Museum of Natural History. In Ziphius the robust pterygoid was 

 found to' be composed of two synostosed and overlapping elements, one 

 mesal and rostral, the other cuadal and lateral. The former bears the 

 hamular process and forms the rostral half of the contour of the tubal 

 notch. It also sends a process across the palate to articulate with the 

 maxilla. The caudal element overlaps the rostral laterally forming 

 the caudal half of the tubal notch and extends to the basioccipital with 

 the otocranial flange of which it articulates. Indications of this division 

 were found also in the adult Zipliius, in Berardius and in Mesoplodon. 

 In Kogia only a faint furrow in the tubal notch remained in the calf. 

 These pterygoids articulate with the alisphenoid, but in the immature 



