posterior nares backwards. This is also, of course, a character of various lower vertebrates. Another Whale-like character in the skull is the weak character of the mandible, which does not give off a marked coronoid process. But then in neither group is there much mastication. The tympanic, periotic and squamosal are ankylosed together. A peculiarity of the cervical vertebrae is that (as in the Camels) the vertebrarterial canal of several of the vertebrae perforates the pedicle obliquely. There are fifteen or sixteen dorsal and three or two lumbar vertebrae. The additional zygapophyses upon the former have been already referred to. The mode of articulation of the ribs is highly singular.
 Fig. 93.—Skull of Anteater (Myrmecophaga). Ventral view. Letters as in Fig. 92. In addition, b.oc, basioccipital; glen, glenoid surface for mandible; pter, pterygoid. (From Parker and Haswell's Zoology.) |
 Fig. 94.—Side view of three mesosternal segments of a young Anteater (Tamandua), showing the mode of articulation of the sternal rib (sr). mst, The upper or inner surface of the mesosternal segment; sy, the synovial articulation between the segments. (From Flower's Osteology, after Parker.) |
Each segment of the sternum (of which there are eight) is separated from the next by a synovial membrane: and it has on either side two facets for articulation with the ribs. The way in
