found a single opening in each vertebra as far back as the pelvic region. Mookerjee and Das indicate that each ventral aperture passes through the centrum and up to the neural canal. They state that branches of the vertebral artery, instead of passing through the intervertebral spaces along with the spinal nerves, enter the spinal canal through these openings.

Ribs are not present on the atlas or axis, and not normally as in some geckos, on the third vertebra. The fourth, fifth and sixth vertebrae, however, have short bony ribs, somewhat expanded at both ends. Attached to their distal ends, these ribs bear delicate cartilaginous processes which, being bifurcated terminally, have a “fish-tail” appearance (Fig. 4 D) These processes increase in size from before backwards so that the last which are on the sixth vertebra are much longer than the rest. The first of the series, which is on the fourth cervical rib, can usually be seen anteriorly to the suprascapula. The others are covered by the latter. It is difficult in alizarin transparencies to see much muscular detail, but the first process on each side appears to have a muscular connexion with the suprascapula.

In Naultinus, although the anterior two cartilaginous processes on each side are forked, the most posterior one is single, slender and elongated. Calcification of these structures may occur in all species.

Mahendra (1935, 1950) describes similar structures in Hemidactylus occurring on the fourth, fifth, sixth and sometimes seventh cervical vertebrae as being presumably uncinate processes. He duly records them for the first time in a living Lacertilian. Their occurrence in geckos, however, is by no means exceptional, for we have subsequently noted them in alizarin transparencies of Jamaican and Australian genera. Furthermore, the term “uncinate” should not be used for these processes without reservation, and it must be pointed out that these geckos do not possess such structures on the sternal and post-sternal ribs where uncinate processes are normally found; that they would be the only living animals possessing uncinate processes on cervical ribs; that their cervical ribs are in two portions, proximal and distal. The processes do not arise from the proximal portion of the rib as is typically the case with uncinate ribs, but from the distal portion.

The seventh and eighth vertebrae have long, slender, dorsal ribs, each jointed distally with a short, blunt, ventral piece of cartilage which does not reach the sternum. These ventral pieces of cartilage are indistinguishable from the sternal ribs, though they are much shorter. In general, it seems clear that the seventh and eighth vertebrae are in the same series as those posterior to them, rather than with the more anterior vertebrae of the column On this basis it is reasonable to follow Camp (1923) in relegating these two vertebrae to the dorsal series, thus regarding the cervical vertebrae as six in number.

In Hoplodactylus, the ninth and tenth vertebrae are connected directly with the sternum by sternal ribs, which are jointed with the dorsal ribs. The sternal ribs of the eleventh and twelfth vertebrae are connected with the xiphisternum. while the sternal ribs of the thirteenth vertebra almost meet in the mid-ventral line, but do not quite connect with the xiphisternum Sometimes only the twelfth vertebra is connected with the xiphisternum.

In Naultinus, the ninth and tenth vertebrae are connected to the sternum proper, while the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth are connected with the xiphisternum. In general, the sternal ribs are better developed in Naultinus than in Hoplodactylus and they approach the mid-ventral line more closely and for a long distance posteriorly.

The sternal ribs are always cartilaginous, but may be calcified, even heavily so in the case of Hoplodactylus duvauceli. In the fourteenth to twentieth vertebrae inclusively, the sternal ribs are free ventrally and diminish in size posteriorly. The twenty-first to twenty-fifth vertebrae have their dorsal ribs decreasing in size and have lost almost all trace of the sternal portions. The twenty-sixth vertebra, normally the last presacral vertebra, has no ribs.