54 
ERIK A : SON STENSIO 
and rather pointed in profile, but, when looked at from the dorsal or the ventral side, 
it is bluntly rounded, as is usual in Coelacanthids. The basis cranii is straight, at least 
from the snout and as far back as the anterior part of the labyrinth region. 
The primordial neurocranium has con¬ 
sisted of cartilage to a considerable extent. 
The nerve exits have in most cases been 
situated in the cartilaginous parts, and as of 
course all the cartilage has disappeared in 
the present state of the skull under con¬ 
sideration it is not easy to make any exact 
division of the different regions from each 
other. This is especially the case with regard 
to the boundary between the occipital and 
the labyrinth region. 
By far the greatest part of the occipital 
region has certainly been cartilaginous, and 
the chorda dorsalis has extended into it and 
perhaps still farther forward. Whether there 
were any ossifications present, as is the case 
in Undina, where a basioccipital was found 
(Heineke, 1907, p. 8), cannot be decided (cf. 
the chapter «Remarks on previously de¬ 
scribed Coelacanthids»). It is also very un¬ 
certain where the foramen vagi was situated. 
In the labyrinth region of the Coela¬ 
canthids two ossifications have previously 
been described, an anterior one, interpreted 
by earlier investigators as the prootic, and 
a posterior one, taken by Huxley (1866, p. 35) 
to be the opisthotic + the lateral occipital 
and by Reis (1888, p. 26, p. 63 ; 1892, p. 23 ) 
as the opisthotic. It now appears in Wimania 
sinuosa that only the latter of these ossi¬ 
fications really quite falls within the labyrinth 
region, and that, as we shall see from the 
subsequent description, it has such a position 
and such an extension that it ought prob¬ 
ably to be taken as the prootic fused with 
the opisthotic (cf. my exposition of Birgeria 
mougeoti below). It may thus conveniently 
be termed the prootico-opisthotic. It must be noted, however, in this connection that 
the opisthotic component seems to be rather small. 
The prootico-opisthotic (Pro. 0, text figs. 19, 20, 21, 23 ; PI. 7, figs. 1, 2; PI. 8, fig. 1) 
forms a rather considerable part of the lateral wall of the labyrinth region, which is 
A. The neurocranium from the dorsal side. The cartilaginous 
parts of the occipital and labyrinth region restored. The cartilage 
dotted. The bones from specimen P. 25 7. 3 / 4 . 
Fr. dspli, fronto-dermosphenotic; Na. ant, nasalo-antorbital. 
Pa. it, parieto-intertemporal; Pro. o, prootico-opisthotic ; Ptrl 
postrostral; So, supraorbitals; Stemp. ext, supratemporo-extra, 
scapular; /. temp, temporal fossa; h, antero-ventrally pointing 
process from the supratemporo-extrascapular, joining the 
prootico-opisthotic. 
B. Cross-section through the left supratemporo-extrascapular 
in its posterior part. 3 / 4 /e, 1 sensory canal. 
