208 
REINHARDT ON 
sense. If we continue, then, to use this terminology, we shall find that the posterior 
articular processes have already disappeared in the sixth dorsal of the Refsnaes dolphin, and in 
the seventh dorsal of the Middelfart individual, whereas the anterior ones do not entirely 
disappear until quite posteriorly in the caudal vertebrae. But whereas these anterior articular 
processes in the different genera of dolphins still continue to clasp round the root of the pre. 
ceding spinous process, in a shorter or longer portion of the dorsal and lumbar region, even after 
the articular surfaces have disappeared, and though they have advanced upwards themselves on 
the vertebral arch to the roots of the spinous processes, there is not one amongst them in our 
dolphin that reaches quite to the spinous process preceding it. This, we suppose, is partly 
owing to their not being particularly large themselves, but also to the considerable length of the 
vertebral bodies by which the intervals between the spinous processes are rendered uncommonly 
large. I know no other dolphin besides this where such is the case; in the nearly related species 
of the killers we still find some eight or nine vertebrae, the spines of which are thus clasped from 
behind by the articular processes of the succeeding vertebra, and even in the ca’ing-whales, though, 
perhaps, in this respect more similar to the one here treated of than any other dolphin, 
we always find some of the spinous processes of the posterior dorsal vertebrae enclasped in 
this manner. 
Ten pairs of ribs, which I have previously thought right to consider as the normal number 
in our crassiclens, is a smaller number than is found in any other dolphin; even the kindred 
species of the killers and the ca’ing-whales have eleven or twelve pairs, and according to Cuvier, 
the last number is also found in Delpftinus griseus. Of these ten pairs, the five foremost are true 
ribs; the six foremost attach themselves to the vertebral bodies, as well as to the transverse 
processes; the four posterior pair, on the contrary, are only affixed to the latter, and thus 
have neither neck or head. In the skeleton of the male stranded at Middelfart, however, we 
find, as it were, a trace indicating that the seventh pair of ribs was also intended to have 
fastened itself both to the vertebral body and the transverse process. For though in this pair 
of ribs there is not the slightest trace of any neck in the ribs themselves, yet the anterior margin 
of the transverse process of the seventh dorsal sends out a cylindrical process, pointing obliquely 
forwards and inwards towards the hindmost part of the body of the sixth dorsal, where again we 
find a projecting knob analogous to the similar one of the preceding vertebra to which the head 
of the sixth rib is attached. It is, however, only in the right side of the skeleton, that this inter¬ 
esting peculiarity is seen exactly as I have described it; for this little process that strives 
to form a bridge in an oblique direction from the transverse process of the seventh dorsal to the 
body of the sixth, is in the left side somewhat more slender than in the right side, nor has it on 
this side preserved its connection with the transverse process, but is, on the contrary, ankylosed 
with the body of the last-mentioned vertebra. In both cases, however, it cannot be doubted 
for an instant, but that it really is some trace, or rudiment of a costal neck, intended for the 
seventh pair of ribs, that we have before us, though having become entirely separated from 
the rib, and ankylosed with the vertebra, with which it was to have been attached. We 
sometimes find the same peculiarity in the seventh dorsal of the ca’ing whale, nor should we 
wonder if this similarity were considered as indicating some very close relationship between our 
dolphin and the latter species. Now, I shall not deny that some similarity may really be found 
to exist between them in this respect, as far as I have hitherto only found this peculiarity in 
these two species; but the importance we may ascribe to this similarity, is, at any rate, very 
