Page:An Introduction to the Study of Fishes.djvu/96

68 the difference in their texture, they appear in the form of an ×. The interspaces between the neurapophyses of the vertebræ are not filled by fibrous membrane, as in other fishes, but by separate cartilages, laminæ or cartilagines intercrurales, to which frequently a series of terminal pieces is superadded, which must be regarded as the first appearance of the interneural spines of the Teleostei and many Ganoids. Similar terminal pieces are sometimes observed on the hæmal arches. Ribs are either absent or but imperfectly represented (Carcharias).

The substance of the skull of the Chondropterygians is cartilage, interrupted especially on its upper surface by more or less extensive fibro-membranous fontanelles. Superficially it is covered by a more or less thick chagreen-like osseous deposit. The articulation with the vertebral column is effected by a pair of lateral condyles. In the Sharks, besides, a central conical excavation corresponds to that of the centrum of the foremost vertebral segment, whilst in the Rays this central excavation of the skull receives a condyle of the axis of the spinous column.

The cranium itself is a continuous undivided cartilage, in which the limits of the orbit are well marked by an anterior and posterior protuberance. The ethmoidal region sends horizontal plates over the nasal sacs, the apertures of which retain their embryonic situation upon the under surface of the skull. In the majority of Chondropterygians these plates are conically produced, forming the base of the soft projecting snout; and in some forms, especially in the long-snouted Rays and the Saw-fishes (Pristis) this prolongation appears in the form of three or more tubiform rods.