
THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 


Vor. XXXIX. February, 1905. No. 458. 

THE BONES OF THE REPTILIAN LOWER JAW. 
J. S. KINGSLEY. 
As ıs well known, the lower jaw in the Reptilia consists of 
a number of bones to which, eighty years ago, Cuvier gave 
names, repeating the descriptions with slight alterations in the 
second edition of his work on fossil bones (1836). He described 
the elements in the jaw of crocodiles, tortoises, lizards, and 
snakes, in the order named. Since his day different anatomists 
have altered. these names for various reasons or have applied 
them to different bones from those to which they were originally 
given. It has recently become necessary, in connection with 
Some investigations, to revise the nomenclature of these ele- 
ments, the results of which are given below. Williston has 
recently pointed out the necessity of some changes. 
Cuvier recognized, at most, six bones to which he gave the 
names articulaire, surangulaire, angulaire, complementaire or cor- 
onoidien,! operculaire, and dentaire. These were given English 
forms by Owen, who changed the names of two. The oper- 
culaire he renamed the splenial so as to avoid confusion with 
! He refers to an earlier work by Adrien Camper (Ann. Mus. Nat. Hist., Paris, 
xix, 1812) for a previous use of the term coronoidien, but Camper merely refers 
to the parts as the apophyses coronoides. 
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