In Amia[45] membrane bones are as freely developed as they are in Teleosteans; they include on each side a squamosal, four opercular bones, a lachrymal, a pre-orbital, one or two suborbitals, two large postorbitals and a supratemporal; while investing the mandible, besides the dentary, splenial, angular, and supra-angular, there is an unpaired jugular. The articular too is double and a mento-meckelian occurs. In Amia teeth are borne on the premaxillae, maxillae, vomers, palatines and pterygoids.
Bony Ganoids are the lowest animals in which squamosal bones are found, and they do not occur in Teleosteans.
The suspensorium in bony Ganoids, as in the Chondrostei, is hyostylic, and there are two ossifications in the hyomandibular cartilage, viz. the hyomandibular, and the symplectic.
The skull of Teleostei is very similar to those of Lepidosteus and Amia. Although the bony skull is greatly developed and very complicated, much of the original cartilaginous cranium often persists. Membrane bones are specially developed on the roof of the skull where they include the parietal, frontal, and nasal bones. The same bones are developed in connection with the upper jaw and roof of the mouth as in bony Ganoids, but only two membrane bones occur in the lower jaw, viz. the angular and dentary. A number of large ossifications take place in the cartilage of the auditory capsules. In some forms parts of the last pair of branchial arches are broadened out and form the pharyngeal bones which bear teeth. The opercular bones and those of the upper and lower jaws are quite comparable to those of bony Ganoids.
A full account of the Teleostean skull has been given in the case of the Salmon (pp. 87-96) and the Cod (pp. 96-101).
In Dipnoi the skull is mainly cartilaginous, but both cartilage- and membrane-bone occur also. Cartilage-bone is found in the ossified exoccipitals, while of membrane-bones Protopterus has among unpaired bones a fronto-parietal, a median ethmoid, and a parasphenoid, and among paired bones nasals and large supra-orbitals. The skull of Ceratodus (fig. 19) has an almost complete roof of membrane bones, including some whose homology is doubtful. The ethmo-vomerine region is always cartilaginous, but bears small teeth. The palato-pterygo-quadrate bar is ossified and firmly united to the cranium, and the mandible articulates directly with it (autostylic). Membrane bones are freely developed in connection with the mandible, dentary, splenial, and angular bones being all present. There are two opercular bones.
In the extinct Dipteridae the cranium is very completely covered with plates of dermal bone, and the skeleton in general is more ossified than is the case in recent Dipnoi.
Six pairs of branchial arches occur in Protopterus; Ceratodus and Lepidosiren have five, like most other fish. The branchial arches bear gill rakers.
Fig. 19. Dorsal (to the left) and ventral (to the right) views of the cranium of Ceratodus miolepis (after Günther).