Page:An Introduction to the Study of Fishes.djvu/86

58 the frontals, and are separated from each other by intervening cartilage.

After removal of the gill-cover and mandibulary suspensorium, the hyoid arch, which encloses the branchial apparatus, and farther behind, the humeral arch are laid open to view (Fig. 25). These parts can be readily separated from the cranium proper.

The hyoid arch is suspended by a slender styliform bone, the stylohyal (29), from the hyomandibulars; it consists of three segments, the epihyal (37), ceratohyal (38), which is the longest and strongest piece, and the basihyal, which is formed by two juxtaposed pieces (39, 40). Between the latter there is a median styliform ossicle (41), extending forwards into the substance of the tongue, called glossohyal or os linguale; and below the junction of the two hyoid branches there is a vertical single bone (42), expanded along its lower edge, which, connected by ligament with the anterior extremity of the humeral arch, forms the isthmus separating the two gill-openings. This bone is called the urohyal. Articulated or attached by ligaments to the epihyal and ceratohyal are a number of sword-shaped bones or rays (43), the branchiostegals, between which the branchiostegal membrane is extended.

The branchial arches (Figs. 25 and 27) are enclosed within the hyoid arch, with which they are closely connected at the base. They are five in number, of which four bear gills, whilst the fifth (56) remains dwarfed, is beset with teeth, and called the lower pharyngeal bone. The arches adhere by their lower extremities to a chain of ossicles (53, 54, 55), basibranchials, and, curving as they ascend, nearly meet at the base of the cranium, to which they are attached by a layer of ligamentous and cellular tissue. Each of the first three branchial arches consists of four pieces movably connected with one another. The lowest is the hypobranchial (57), the next much longer one (58) the ceratobranchial, and, above this, a slender and a short