452 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
atlas, and formed a massive bone 5J inches in its greatest 
transverse, 5 inches in its greatest dorsi-ventral, and 2J inches 
in its greatest antero-posterior diameter. The transverse pro- 
cesses of these vertebrae were not anchylosed with each other. 
The transverse process on each side of the atlas was single, but that 
of the axis consisted of a short superior and a longer inferior limb, 
which were not united at their outer ends. The sub-occipital 
groove on the anterior lamina of the atlas was converted into a 
foramen by a bridge of bone. The last five cervicals were all free. 
The bodies of the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th ranged from 2J to 2| 
inches in transverse diameter, and measured about half an inch 
antero-posteriorly. In each the superior and inferior limbs of the 
transverse process were separated from each other externally by a 
wide interval, which was also the case in the Brussels skeleton ; but 
as this skeleton was perfectly adult, it may now be stated that no 
foramen exists at the root of the transverse process in the cervical 
vertebrae of this animal. The superior limb was a stunted plate ; 
the inferior limb was more elongated ; in the 3rd and 4th vertebrae 
it projected slightly backwards ; in the 5th and 6th it projected 
downwards and outwards, and in the 6th it was 1 J inch long. In 
the 3rd, 4th, and 5th vertebrae, the laminae were not united mesially, 
so that they had no spines. In the 6th a slender stunted spine was 
present ; the 7th had a slender spine If inch long : its superior 
transverse process was 1 \ inch long and pointed, whilst the inferior 
was a mere tubercle. Its body was elongated transversely beyond 
the articular surfaces for the vertebrae in front and behind, and on 
each side it had an articular facet 1 inch by f inch for the head of 
the first rib. The fusion of the atlas with the axis, and the free 
condition of the other cervicals, is obviously a character of this 
animal, as it was also seen in the Brussels and in both the Goteborg 
skeletons.* The condylar articular surfaces of the atlas were 
separated below by an interval of x 4 oths inch, whilst in the young 
Bayards’ Mesoplodon , the interval was less than x 2 oths inch. 
Dorsal Vertebrae . — In this region the bodies increased in size from 
before backwards. The first had a pair of rudimentary tubercles 
* M. Gervais, in his account of Sowerby’s whale in Osteographie des Cetaces, 
states that the first three cervicals are fused together, but he does not say in 
which skeleton this has been seen. 
