[Illustration: FIG. 8. The left mandible and associated quadrate of _Conophis lineatus concolor_ (UMMZ S-788) showing (A) lateral and (B) medial views. × 3. Teeth shown by means of broken lines were represented only by their sockets.]
_Mandible._--The dentary (fig. 8) is compressed laterally and rounded below. The teeth, which are longest about one-third of the way from the anterior end of the dentary, are set in sockets on the medial side of the bone. The posterior half of the dentary overlies the fused surangular-prearticular part of the articular. Ventrally, the posterior part of the dentary underlies the splenial, which is set in a median trench within the dentary. Near the common suture of the dentary and the splenial is the large inferior alveolar foramen; completely within the splenial and ventral to the inferior alveolar foramen is the anterior mylohyoid foramen. Posterior to the splenial and also forming a part of the ventral surface of the mandible is the wedge-shaped angular, which lies directly beneath the fused surangular-prearticular. As has been implied, the articular, the surangular, and the prearticular are fused. The prearticular part of this bone forms a part of Meckel's canal. In the surangular part, immediately posterior to the end of the dentary, is the large surangular foramen. Lying in a longitudinal axis along the medial surface of the articular is a high crest, dorsal to which is a deep hollow. The lateral wall of the articular above this hollow is thin and rounded dorsally; the ventral surface is uniformly round and slightly curved dorsally, except that it ends with a short tympanic crest, which projects beyond the articulation with the quadrate. Where the quadrate articulates with the dorsolateral surface of the posterior portion of the squamosal, the former is broad and has a high mid-lateral crest, which extends about one-third of the distance down the quadrate before disappearing. The columellar process (the place of fusion of the columella) is about two-thirds of the way down the medial surface of the quadrate. Ventrally the quadrate has a narrow neck dorsal to its articulation with the articular. The articulation is formed by two lateral flanges of the quadrate that fit over a medial ridge formed by the articular.
