. Carnegie Institution of Washington publication. The skull of the Cheloniidas differs in some important respects from that of the Emydidae. In order to illustrate this, figures are here introduced giving upper (plate I, fig. i), lower (plate i, fig. 2), and lateral (plate 2, fig. 1) views of the skull of' Lepidochelys kempi Garman. These figures were prepared for Dr. George Baur, in 1888, but reverted to the United States Geological Survey, the then director of which, Dr. C. D. Walcott, has permitted them to be used here. No figures of this species have hitherto been publisht. The
. Carnegie Institution of Washington publication. The skull of the Cheloniidas differs in some important respects from that of the Emydidae. In order to illustrate this, figures are here introduced giving upper (plate I, fig. i), lower (plate i, fig. 2), and lateral (plate 2, fig. 1) views of the skull of' Lepidochelys kempi Garman. These figures were prepared for Dr. George Baur, in 1888, but reverted to the United States Geological Survey, the then director of which, Dr. C. D. Walcott, has permitted them to be used here. No figures of this species have hitherto been publisht. The most interesting feature of the skulls of the sea-turtles is the great extent of the bony roof covering the temporal region. This roof extends from the orbit to behind the plane of the occipital con- dyle. The postfrontal bone, narrow in the emyds, is carried backward nearly to the hinder border of the roof. The squamosal sends upward and inward a plate that meets a horizontal plate from the parietal, forming a parieto-squamosal arch. The lower side of the skull is interesting chiefly because of the broadening of the triturat- ing surfaces of the jaws. The palatal plates of the vomer extend backward until they meet similar plates from the palatines. The choanae are thus thrown much farther toward the middle of the skull than in the skull represented by text- figure 4. The crushing surfaces of the lower jaw are correspondingly widened (plate 1, figs. 3 and 4). In the Thalassemydidas the choanae Fig. *retta. Pelvis from may be pusht much further backward, as may be seen by examining the skull of Rhetechelys platyops (Cope). There are no posterior palatine foramina. In the Cheloniidae the procoracoid process makes an obtuse angle with the body of the scapula, and there is a distinct neck between the process and the glenoid fossa. The coracoid bone is longer than the scapula and moderately expanded at its free end. These bones are represented by fig. 2 of plate 2. The h
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