Transcriber's Note
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
CAMBRIDGE BIOLOGICAL SERIES.
General Editor:—Arthur E. Shipley, M.A.
Fellow And Tutor of Christ's College, Cambridge.
THE
VERTEBRATE SKELETON.
London: C.J. CLAY AND SONS,
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE,
AVE MARIA LANE,
AND
H.K. LEWIS,
136, GOWER STREET, W.C.
Glasgow: 50, WELLINGTON STREET.
Leipzig: F.A. BROCKHAUS.
New York: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Bombay and Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd.
[All Rights reserved.]
THE
VERTEBRATE SKELETON
By
SIDNEY H. REYNOLDS, M.A.,
TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE;
LECTURER AND DEMONSTRATOR IN GEOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY AT UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE, BRISTOL.
Cambridge:
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
1897
[All Rights reserved.]
Cambridge:
PRINTED BY J. & C.F. CLAY,
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
PREFACE.
In the following pages the term skeleton is used in itswidest sense, so as to include exoskeletal or tegumentarystructures, as well as endoskeletal structures. It was thoughtadvisable to include some account of the skeleton of thelowest Chordata—animals which are not strictly vertebrates,but it seemed undesirable to alter the title of the book inconsequence.
The plan adopted in the treatment of each group hasbeen to give first an account of the general skeletal charactersof the group in question and of its several subdivisions;secondly to describe in detail the skeleton of one or moreselected types; and thirdly to treat the skeleton as developedin the group organ by organ.
A beginner is advised to commence, not with the introductorychapter, but with the skeleton of the Dogfish, thento pass to the skeletons of the Newt and Frog, and thento that of the Dog. After that he might pass to the introductorychapter and work straight through the book. I haveendeavoured to make the account of each type skeletoncomplete in itself; this has necessitated a certain amount of[vi]repetition,—a fault that I have found it equally difficult toavoid in other parts of the book.
Throughout the book generic names are printed in italics;and italics are used in the accounts of the type skeletons forthe names of membrane bones. Clarendon type is used toemphasise certain words. In the classificatory table thenames of extinct genera only, are printed in italics.
In a book in which an attempt is made to cover to someextent such a vast field, it would be vain to hope to haveavoided many errors both of omission and commission, andI owe it to the kindness of several friends that the errors arenot much more numerous. I cannot however too emphaticallysay that for those which remain I alone am responsible.Messrs C.W. Andrews, E. Fawcett, S.F. Harmer, J