Identifier: b20416039_001 Title: On the anatomy of vertebrates [electronic resource] Year: 1866 (1860s) Authors: Owen, Richard, 1804-1892 Subjects: Anatomy, Comparative Vertebrates Fishes Reptiles Mammals Birds Publisher: London : Longmans, Green Contributing Library: Wellcome Library Digitizing Sponsor: Wellcome Library

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Text Appearing Before Image: al metacarpal bones, fig. 103,57, the middle ones being the longest: they sustain thirty-fivedigital rays, and are supported bycarpal bones, ib. 103, 56, of whichtwo are almost as remarkable fortheir length as in the Lophius ; thethird, shorter and broader, is wedgedinto the interspace of the two longerones, but does not directly join the Bones of pectoral fin of poiyPtemsmetacarpus. The carpus is supported by a small radius, 55, andulna, 54, which articulate directly with the coracoid. A furtherapproach to the higher conditions of the pectoral member is madeby the same Fish in the carpal portion projecting freely from theside of the body, as in the Lophioid Fishes. In the Salmon,where eleven such metacarpals support thirteen or fourteen fin-rays, the carpus is short and consists of four bones. In the Plagiostomes the scapular arch is detached from the oc-ciput, the conditions of its displacement being the more varied andvigorous use, or the enormous expanse, of the pectoral fin; per-

Text Appearing After Image: 1 clix. p. 46. 168 ANATOMY OF VERTEBRATES. haps, also, the more posterior position of the heart in these Fishes.In the Sharks and Chimeerce the arch is loosely suspended byligaments from the vertebral column: in the Rays the point of re-sistance of their enormous pectoral fins has a firmer, but somewhatanomalous attachment, by the medium of the coalesced upper endsof the suprascapular pieces to the summits of the spines of theconfluent anterior portion of the thoracic abdominal vertebras. Inthe Sharks the scapular arch consists chiefly of the coracoid por-tions, fig. 104, 52, which are confluent together beneath the peri-cardium which they support and defend; the scapular ends of thearch, connected to the coracoids by ligament, project freely upward,backward, and outward. To a posterior prominence of the cora-coid cartilage corresponding with the anchylosed radius and ulna,ib. 54, 55, in the Lophius, there are attached, in the Dog-fish andmost other Sharks, three sub-compressed, sub-e

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