October 15, 1968  

PRINTED BY
ROBERT R. (BOB) SANDERS, STATE PRINTER
TOPEKA, KANSAS
1968



32-3686

The paucity of descriptive cranial anatomical work dealing with hylid frogs was pointed out by Trueb (1966) in her paper describing the cranial osteology of Hyla septentrionalis. Comparative studies on the cranial osteology of the genus Smilisca (Duellman and Trueb, 1966), along with other more brief descriptions, reveal variation among cranial characters of hylids. Since these external characters have been useful in defining species, species groups, and genera, it seems worthwhile to pursue correlated studies on internal cranial structure. The following account dealing with the Neotropical tree frog, Smilisca baudini Duméril and Bibron, 1841, is the first published description of the internal cranial anatomy of a hylid frog, and supplements the recent account (Duellman and Trueb, 1966) of external cranial osteology of the same species. Comparative studies of hylid skulls are expected to yield information of taxonomic importance.

I am grateful to Richard J. Baldauf of Texas A & M University and William E. Duellman of the University of Kansas for critically reading the manuscript and offering helpful suggestions. The findings reported here result from research on Middle American hylids supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (GB-1441) to William E. Duellman.

The serial sections illustrated beyond are from an adult male of Smilisca baudini (KU 89924) having a snout-vent length of 53.0 mm. and a head width (measured at angle of jaws) of 17.0 mm. The specimen was collected 5.2 kilometers east-southeast of Córdoba, Veracruz, México. Transverse sections were cut at thicknesses of 10 and 15 microns on a rotary microtome and stained according to the technique described by Baldauf (1958). Cleared and stained specimens and dried skeletons also were used. Figure 1 is based on KU 68183-4 and Fig. 9 on KU 55614. All other drawings are made from KU 89924. In all cross-sectional figures, bone is represented by solid black, cartilage by stippling, and connective tissue by cross-hatching. Unless otherwise noted all descriptions are given in an anterior-posterior sequence.

Commonly accepted English terms are used. For example, dentary is used in preference to dentale and maxillary process instead of processus maxillaris. If no commonly accepted English term is available for a given structure, the Latin name is retained. For example, the cartilaginous plate separating the cavum principale from the cavum medium is termed the lamina superior.

Alary cartilage.—The anterior end of the alary cartilage (al. c., Figs. 2-5) lies within the posterior concavity of the alary process (al. proc., Figs. 1-3) of the premaxillary (pmax.). In posterior sections the cartilage assumes a dorsolateral position (Fig. 3), ventral and slightly lateral to the tectum nasi. The alary cartilage remains narrowly separated from the tectum nasi but fuses ventromedially with the septum nasi and forms a nearly complete cartilaginous capsule around the anterior end of the cavum principale. Posterior to the anterior end of the cavum medium and the lamina superior, the alary cartilage separates ventrally from the lamina. In subsequent posterior sections, the cartilage, arcuate in cross section, becomes progressively smaller and terminates at the level of the union of the medial and lateral recesses of the cavum inferior.

Prenasal cartilages.—The superior prenasal cartilage is small; it lies adjacent to the posterodorsal surface of the alary process of the premaxillary, and anterior to the alary cartilage. The inferior prenasal cartilage (inf. pnas. c., Figs. 2-6, and 8) appears posterior to the appearance of the alary cartilage. The anterior terminus lies at the base of the alary process; the cartilage extends dorsally (