The Vertebrate Skeleton

by Sidney H. Reynolds

The Skull.

The reptilian skull is well ossified and the bones are noticeable for their density. The true cranium is often largely concealed by a secondary or false roof of membrane bones, which is best seen in the Ichthyosauria and some of the Chelonia. In other reptiles the false roof is more or less broken up by vacuities exposing the true cranial walls. The ethmoidal region is the only one in which much of the primordial cartilaginous cranium remains. The lateral parts of the sphenoidal region are also as a rule not well ossified.

In some reptiles, such as most Lacertilia and Chelonia, the orbits are separated only by the imperfect interorbital septum, while in others, such as the Ophidia, Crocodilia and Amphisbaenidae, the cranial cavity extends forwards between the orbits.

In the occipital region all four bones are ossified. The great majority of reptiles have a single convex occipital condyle, but some of the Theromorpha such as Cynognathus have two distinct condyles as in mammals. Sometimes, as in Chelonia, Ophidia and Lacertilia, the exoccipitals, as well as the basi-occipital, take part in the formation of the single condyle; sometimes, as in Crocodiles, it is formed by the basi-occipital alone, as in birds. The relations of the bones to the foramen magnum vary considerably, in Chelonia the basi-occipital generally takes no part in bounding it, and in the Theromorpha, Crocodilia, and Ophidia, the supra-occipital is excluded. The parietals are paired in Geckos and Chelonia alone among living forms, and in the extinct Ichthyosauria and some Theromorpha; in all other reptiles they are united.

The frontals are paired in Ichthyosauria (fig. 32, 5), Chelonia, Ophidia, Sphenodon (fig. 52, B, 4) and some extinct crocodiles, such as Belodon. They are completely fused in living Crocodilia and some Lacertilia and Dinosauria. In the gigantic Polyonax they are drawn out into a pair of enormous horns, and the parietals and squamosals are greatly expanded behind.

An interparietal foramen occurs in the Theromorpha, the Ichthyosauria (fig. 32, 10), Sphenodon, the Sauropterygia and most Lacertilia. The posterior part of the skull is curiously modified in some Chamaeleons, the parietals and supra-occipitals being drawn out into a backwardly-projecting sagittal crest which unites with the two prolongations from the squamosals. In other Chamaeleons (C. bifidus) prolongations of the prefrontals and maxillae form large forwardly-projecting bony processes.

The roof of the skull is characterised by the development of prefrontals and postfrontals, which lie respectively near the anterior and posterior extremity of the orbit. In Theromorpha, Squamata, Crocodilia, and some Dinosauria lachrymals are developed. There is a ring of bones in the sclerotic in the Ichthyosauria (fig. 32, 15), the Metriorhynchidae among Crocodiles and some Rhynchocephalia, Dinosauria, and Pterosauria.

The pro-otic lies in front of the exoccipital and together with the opisthotic forms the hind border of the fenestra ovalis. In Chelonia the opisthotic remains separate, in all other living reptiles it fuses with the exoccipital. The epi-otic fuses with the supra-occipital.

The parasphenoid, so important in Ichthyopsids, has very often disappeared completely; it is present, however, in the Ichthyosauria, the Plesiosauridae, and a number of Squamata, in many Ophidia its anterior part forming the base of the interorbital septum.

In the Plesiosauridae and most Lacertilia, but not in the Amphisbaenidae, a slender bone, the epipterygoid, occurs uniting the parietal or the anterior end of the pro-otic with the pterygoid. A homologous arrangement occurs in the Ichthyosauria and some Chelonia.