290 



THE ANATOJTY OF TERTEBRATED ANIMALS. 



wide lateral processes, the faces of which look obliquely down- 

 ward and forward, and upward and backward. The centra 

 of the other cervical vertebra are much elongated, strongly 

 convex in front, and correspondingly concave behind. The 

 neural spines are obsolete in all but the seventh. Tlie liga- 

 'iiicntwn nuchce is a great sheet of elastic tissue, which extends 

 from the spines of the anterior dorsal vertebrje to the occiput, 

 iind is fixed, below, into the neural arches of the cervical ver> 

 tebra;. 



In the dorsal region, the opisthocoelous character of the 

 centra of the vertebrse gradually diminishes, though the ante- 



