24 UPPER CRETACEOUS TELEOSTS 
through a small foramen medial to the facial foramen into a canal which opens 
ventrally into the myodome. The posterior opening of the jugular canal only trans- 
mitted the jugular vein. Dorso-lateral to the pars jugularis a large foramen trans- 
mitted the hyomandibular nerve. Ventro-laterally a small foramen leads upwards 
through a canal into the pars jugularis, and this carried the orbital artery. Through 
the anterior opening of the pars jugularis the jugular vein, the orbital artery, and the 
buccal branches of both the trigeminal and the facial nerves were transmitted. Two 
very small foramina are also found in the lateral wall of the pars jugularis and may 
have transmitted a small artery and vein into the muscle masses next to the prootic. 
Several additional foramina are found in the hind wall of the orbit. The otic 
nerves from the anterior opening of the pars jugularis passed upwards into the 
sphenotic through several elongated foramina. Medial to the anterior opening of the 
pars jugularis a large foramen transmitted the superficial ophthalmic nerves, the 
profundus, and probably a mandibular branch of the facial or the trigeminal. The 
superficial ophthalmic nerves passed dorsally on to the face of the pleurosphenoid 
where their course is marked by a groove. A further small foramen in the hind wall 
of the orbit dorso-medial to the other foramina may also have transmitted super- 
ficial ophthalmic nerves. The oculomotor passed through a foramen lying ventro- 
lateral to the suture between the basisphenoid and the prootic. 
soc a 
— P 
20mm 
i | 
Fic. 9. Apateodus striatus Woodward. Neurocranium in posterior view. From the 
collection of the Institute of Geological Sciences, number 26241. 
The exoccipitals meet in the mid-line on the posterior face of the neurocranium and 
enclose the foramen magnum. Each exoccipital forms part of the occipital condyle 
together with the basioccipital. The exoccipitals contact the supraoccipital dorsally, 
the epiotics laterally and the intercalar ventro-laterally. On either side of the fora- 
men magnum are two small foramina which transmitted occipital nerves to the 
vertebral column. On the lateral face of the skull the exoccipital meets the basi- 
occipital ventrally, the prootic anteriorly, the pterotic dorsally and the intercalar 
