The vertebral formula in the three North American specimens and in four
Old World specimens and Burmeister’s Argentine specimen is as follows:
_Vertebral formula of Ziphius cavirostris._
Locality and sex. C. Th. L. Ca. Total.
Newport, Rhode Island, male 7 9 10 20 46
Barnegat City, New Jersey, female 7 9 11 18(+1?) 46(?)
Charleston, South Carolina, female 7 10 10 16(+3?) 46(?)
Holma, Sweden (Malm) 7 10 10 18(+1) 46
Pisa Museum (Van Beneden) 7 9 11 16+ 43+
Warrington, New Zealand (Scott and 7 10 9 20 46
Parker)
Lyttleton Harbor, New Zealand 7 9 11 19 46
(Haast)
Buenos Ayres, Argentina 7 10 10 22 49
(Burmeister), male
In the figures of the Argentine specimen the last ten caudals are
practically without characters, and it is perhaps allowable to question
whether the terminal two or three were not added to make an even taper to
the end of the column. If such be not the case, this specimen had more
vertebræ than any other.