OF THE SKULL IN' LEPIDOSTEUS OSSEUS, 
467 
appear. The suspensorium and its free bar reach from the auditory region to a small 
distance behind the end of the snout; these cartilages, moreover, largely overlap each 
other; end to end, they would be considerably longer than the entire skull. The 
quadrate hinge (q.c.) is opposite the point where the olfactory nerves (I.) emerge, a 
little in front of the cranial cavity. The dorsal end of the suspensorium is bilobate; 
the pedicle (pel.) is an oblong, oblique facet, looking backwards and inwards, and 
articulating with a similar facet on the basipterygoid (b.pg.) ; the outer lobe is free ; 
it is the triangular otic process ( ot.p .) ; it reaches almost to the ear-capsule, but is 
too short to articulate with it. The main part of the suspensorium runs from these 
hind lobes to the quadrate hinge (q.c.) ; the inner margin is first hollow and then 
arched ; the arch runs along the free anterior process; that edge is sharp. The outer 
edge is thick and ribbed on its inner face (Plate 34, figs. 2, 4); it is nearly parallel 
with the upper, being convex behind and concave in front. The width of this large 
plate is equal to half its length, and it is very elegantly sigmoid. 
The quadrate hinge (q.c.) is a small oblong saddle, the main direction of which is 
forwards and a little downwards; it is convex outwardly, but has a rising inner crest 
(Plate 34, fig. 4), which fits closely to the articular condyle (ar.c.). Beyond the hinge 
the pterygo-palatine bar is first half as wide as its root, and then losing its inner crest, 
it becomes a rounded, straight, slender style, which ends very close to the point of 
the cornu trabeculae (Plate 34, fig. 1, ppg., c.tr.). 
The lower or inner face of the suspensorium is gently convex ; the upper or outer 
face, gently concave. On the convex inner face there is a large splint-bone — the 
pterygoid (Plate 34, fig. 2, pg.) ; it covers more than half of the broad part of the 
cartilage—its antero-superior part. For some distance in front of the quadrate condyle 
it is continued forwards, undiminished in size ; it then lessens gradually into a pointed 
style, which runs parallel with, and a little on the outside of, the rostrum (i.tr.) for 
three-fifths of its length. 
A very narrow dentigerous bone underlies the narrow fore half of the pterygoid, 
and then goes beyond it up to the premaxillary, or nearly to the end of the snout. 
It is rather broadened in its diverging hind part, and then the right and left bones 
gently converge forwards; these are the pcirosteal palatines (pa'.). 
Along the inner edge of the suspensorium there is a narrow, thin, falcate splint, 
which reaches from the top of the broad part to the neck of the pedicle; this is the 
“ mesopterygoid ” (ms.pg.). The front of the neck of the pedicle is ossified as a small 
ectosteal patch; this is the “metapterygoid ” (mt.pg.). The neck of the quadrate 
condyle also is ossified ; this is the small quadrate ectostosis (q.). 
From the dilated end of the intertrabecula (Plate 5, fig. 2, i.tr.) to the fore end of 
the palato-quadrate styles, there is an extremely delicate pair of bony threads; these 
are the vomers (v.). In their hinder third these bones underlie the styloid end of a 
bone more than twice their breadth; this is the parasphenoid ( pa.s .); it is carinate 
below, widening as it approaches the basis cranii; it then narrows till it nearly reaches 
