PSEUDORCA CRASSIDENS. 
207 
the Grampus griseus resemble each other or not in their cervical vertebrae, so long as we, with 
respect to the latter, have only Cuvier’s description to go by, which as to this point is quite 
insufficient. To judge by his words, we may, perhaps, surmise that his dolphin agrees with ours, 
at all events, insomuch that all seven cervical vertebrae grow together into one solid osseous 
mass; for his words are: “ dans le griseus, les cervicales se soudent aussi promptement que dans 
le dauphin / n but, at the same time, it must not be overlooked that he expresses himself in much 
the same manner about his Delp/iinus globiceps, generally considered as identical with the 
Delp/iinus melas of Traill, although, in this instance, the seventh cervical vertebra (at any rate 
according to my experience) remains separate throughout life. 2 
The body of the first dorsal vertebra is scarcely longer than that of the seventh cervical 
vertebra, but that of the second dorsal has already almost double the length, and the succeeding 
vertebrae uniformly increase in length. The distinction between two different elements in the 
anterior of the processes known by the name of processus obliqui, or articulares, in the dorsal 
and lumbar vertebrae, namely, partly the real articular process, partly the wartlike process— 
processus mammillaris as it is called, placed outside the former, a distinction which of late has been 
pointed out, especially by A. Retzius, must to a certain degree be acknowledged as justi¬ 
fiable in our dolphin, as in the Cetaceans generally ; mammillary processes may, properly speaking, 
be distinguished already in the second dorsal, and even in the seventh we may still, though with 
difficulty, discern both one of these and an articular process placed inside it. But from thence 
these two sorts of processes are united in one, and as the mammillary processes are not particularly 
prominent, even where they are largest, but may very well be regarded as parts of the articular 
process, I prefer to take no further notice here of the distinction made by Retzius, and accordingly 
to use the denomination of processus obliqui , or articulares, in their earlier, and more common 
‘ Rech. s. 1. Oss. Foss./ 1. c., p. 147. As to the comparison used by Cuvier in this place, T raav, 
perhaps, be permitted to observe, that while he assumes all seven cervical vertebrse to be ankylosed in the 
Delphinus delphis (1. c., p. 140), it is stated by Rapp (‘die Cetaceen/ p. 62) that only the two foremost 
are ankylosed in this species. Dr. Jackson finally, who in ‘Boston Journal of Nat. Hist./ 1845, has 
described a dolphin from the coast of North America, which, according to his supposition and that of 
Gray, may, perhaps, be referred to Delphinus delphis, is (according to Gray's citation of the original 
essay, inaccessible to me) said to have “the first and second cervical scarcely moveable upon each other; 
and the other five smaller and rather more moveable" (Gray, ‘ Catal. of Cetacea,’ p. 122). I must 
leave it undecided how far the discrepancies of these statements are caused by different species or in¬ 
dividuals of different age having formed the objects of the different researches, or by what other 
manner they are to be explained. I shall only remark that, whether Jackson’s seven feet long dolphin 
was the genuine D. delphis or not, his statement about a mobility, be it ever so slight, between 
the axis and the atlas, may, perhaps, be considered doubtful. Even in such forms as have only these 
two vertebrse ankylosed, but the rest of the cervical vertebrse free as D. tursio, the bodies of the two 
first-mentioned vertebrse are so completely ankylosed, that we cannot even point out any limits between 
them, and by examining foetuses of Phoccena communis, it will be seen that the coalescence is already 
to be found in these. We shall hardly in any dolphins find a mobility between the atlas and the 
axis, except in those few’ cases in which all the cervical vertebrse remain free throughout life; and such is 
only the case with forms that are generically widely different from the group to which Delphinus 
delphis belongs, namely, with the narwhal, the beluga, and the platanista. 
2 1. c., p. 146. “ Dans le globiceps les cervicales se soudent assez vite.” 
