. On the anatomy of vertebrates [electronic resource] . ooseand diminutive pelvic bones, by the absence of pelvic limbs, andby the large size of the skull, due in most to that of the jaws,which in some Whales (Baleenidee, fig. 159, Physeter meteroce-phalus) is excessive. A. Vertebral Column.— Although there is as little outward signof a neck in a whale as in a fish, the same number of cervicalvertebrae are present as in the giraffe. The atlas, fig. 283, l, is thelargest, is characterised by its huge and approximate articular cups,c, for the occipital condyles, and by the substitution of a hypa
. On the anatomy of vertebrates [electronic resource] . ooseand diminutive pelvic bones, by the absence of pelvic limbs, andby the large size of the skull, due in most to that of the jaws,which in some Whales (Baleenidee, fig. 159, Physeter meteroce-phalus) is excessive. A. Vertebral Column.— Although there is as little outward signof a neck in a whale as in a fish, the same number of cervicalvertebrae are present as in the giraffe. The atlas, fig. 283, l, is thelargest, is characterised by its huge and approximate articular cups,c, for the occipital condyles, and by the substitution of a hypapo-physis for the true centrum, which coalesces as an odontoid processwith that of the axis : both these vertebrae are antero-posteriorlycompressed and transversely extended, and the five succeedingcervicals are still shorter in proportion to their height and breadth:they are, in fact, lamelliform, without reciprocal movement, andusually exhibit a greater or less extent of confluence, the whole 1 xcir. p. 63, no. 377. 416 ANATOMY OF VERTEBRATES. 281. Dorsal vertebra, Whale. 2S2 forming; one mass like a £ cervical sacrum in the true Whales(Balance, fig. 159, c), small Cachalots (Euphysetes),1 the Grampus,2the Porpoise: the neural arches of the axis and following cervicalsare confluent in most. The cervicals thus give a firm support tothe large head which has to overcome the resistance of the water when the swift swimmer is cleav-ing its course through that ele-ment. The characters defining thesucceeding vertebrae, applicable tocomparisons of species and re-cognition of range of variation,appear to be:—the support of freeribs; the presence of transverseprocesses formed chiefly by coa-lesced pleurapophyses, fig. 141, d;the articulation of haemapophyses,fig. 282, h, to the centrum, ib. , in a large British Dolphin(Delphinus tursio), the skeleton of which I prepared (and to takethe bones from the carcase is almost essential to certainty as tonumber of ribs and haemal arch
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