General features

Paired appendages are not found in ancestral vertebrates and are not present in the modern cyclostomes (e.g., lampreys, hagfishes). Appendages first appeared during the early evolution of the fishes. Usually two pairs of appendages are present, fins in fish and limbs in land vertebrates. Each appendage includes not only the skeletal elements within the free portion of the limb but also the basal supporting structure, the limb girdle. This portion of the appendage lies partly or wholly within the trunk and forms a stable base for the fin or limb. Each girdle consists of ventral and dorsal masses. In lower fishes these are composed of cartilage; in bony fishes and in land vertebrates they become partly or completely ossified.

The anterior appendages, the pectoral fins or forelimbs, articulate with the pectoral girdle. The pectoral girdle is situated just behind the gill region in fish and in a comparable position at the junction of the neck and thorax in land vertebrates.

The posterior appendages, called pelvic fins or hind limbs, articulate with the pelvic girdle, which is situated in the trunk region usually just in front of the anus or cloaca (the ventral posterior body opening in many lower vertebrates). It is by way of the girdles that the weight of the body of land vertebrates is transmitted to the limbs. Because the hind limb is usually of greater importance in weight bearing, especially in bipedal vertebrates, it articulates with the vertebral column by means of the costal elements of the sacral vertebrae. The vertebrae to which the pelvic girdle are attached usually fuse together to form the sacrum. In fishes, however, a sacrum as such does not develop, owing to the fact that the posterior appendages usually do not support the body weight but are used only in locomotion.

The origin of paired fins has been much debated, and many theories have been put forward in explanation. According to the widely accepted fin-fold theory, the paired limbs are derived from the local persistence of parts of a continuous fold that in ancestral vertebrates passed along each side of the trunk and fused behind the anus into a single fin. The primitive paired fins were attached to the body by a broad base and carried no weight. Their main function, it would appear, was to act as horizontal stabilizing keels, which tended to prevent rolling movements and possibly also front-to-back pitching movements.

Most authorities agree that the limbs of land vertebrates evolved from the paired fins of fishes. Limbs and fins are thought to have their ancestral counterparts in the fins of certain lobe-finned fishes (Crossopterygii, a nearly extinct group of which the coelacanth is a living example). The skeleton of the primitive fin consists of a series of endoskeletal rods, each of which undergoes subdivision into a series of three or four pieces. The basal pieces tend to fuse into larger pieces. The most anterior of the basal pieces fuses across the midline with its fellow of the opposite side to form a primitive girdle that is in the form of a cartilaginous bar. The more distal basal pieces remain separate, forming the dermal (i.e., on or near the body surface) fin rays.

Pectoral girdle

In a cartilaginous fish, such as the dogfish, the pectoral girdle consists of a U-shaped endoskeletal, cartilaginous, inverted arch with its ends extending dorsally.

In all other major groups of vertebrates, the pectoral girdle is a composite structure. It consists of endoskeletal structures to which secondary dermal components are added as the result of ossification of dermal elements. The components become ossified to form dermal bones. In primitive bony fishes—such as the lungfishes, sturgeon, and coelacanths—the main element added is a vertically placed structure, the cleithrum, which supports the scapula. The cleithrum may be joined by a supracleithrum, which in turn is surmounted by a posttemporal element (i.e., at the rear of the skull). The most ventral of the added dermal bones are the clavicles, which unite below the gill chambers with each other or with the sternum. In the holostean fishes (e.g., gar) the clavicle is lost, leaving only the cleithrum.

In tailed amphibians, such as newts and salamanders, the dermal elements of the pectoral girdle have been completely lost, and only the endoskeletal parts remain, mainly in the form of cartilaginous bars. This retrogression is probably the result of their adaptation chiefly to an aquatic mode of life, in which less support is required by the girdles. The ventral part of the girdle forms the coracoid process, and the dorsal part forms the scapula; the latter is the only part that ossifies. Only a rudimentary sternum develops.

In most reptiles the primary girdle for the forelimb consists of a scapula and a single coracoid process. The pectoral girdle of the lizard consists of bones formed in cartilage—the scapula and the large coracoid process, forming the glenoid cavity (i.e., the cup-shaped structure in which the humerus articulates)—and the dermal bones—the clavicle and interclavicle. The latter is a single T-shaped bone, with the stem in the midline; it is in contact with the sternum. The curved clavicles articulate with each other at their medial ends (i.e., toward the body midline). The cartilaginous suprascapula is present.

In birds the pectoral girdle is essentially similar to that in reptiles. The precoracoid process forms a stout bar that reaches to the sternum. The wishbone, or furcula, which forms from the dermal part of the girdle, consists of two clavicles united in the midline by the interclavicle. Carinate birds (those with a keeled sternum) possess a sabre-shaped scapula and a stout coracoid process, joined by ligaments at the point at which is found the glenoid cavity for articulation with the humerus. The coracoid process is joined to the sternum; at its dorsal end is the acrocoracoid process. The furcula stands in front of the coracoid processes. The furcula’s ends are connected by ligaments with the acrocoracoid process and with the rudimentary acromion process of the scapula. The girdle of the flightless ratite birds (those with a flat sternum) is little developed. The girdle is represented by an ankylosed, or fused, scapula and coracoid process.

Among mammals, the monotremes have two coracoid processes, which articulate medially with the presternum and laterally with the scapula. The coracoids enter into the formation of the glenoid cavity. Also present are an interclavicle (episternum) and an investing clavicle, resembling the bones in reptiles. The clavicle articulates with the acromion process of the scapula. In the opossum the scapula has a spine ending in the acromion, with which the clavicle articulates. A much-reduced coracoid fuses with the scapula and does not meet the sternum. The scapula of placental mammals has a spine ending, generally, in an acromion; the body of the bone is triangular. In mammals that use the forelimb for support in standing, the vertebral margin is the shortest, and the long axis of the scapula runs from it to the glenoid cavity; but in those whose forelimb is used for prehension, or grasping, such as in the primates, or for flight, such as in the bats, the vertebral margin is elongated, and the distance from it to the glenoid cavity is decreased. The long axis is thus parallel with that of the body instead of being transverse. In the placental mammals the coracoid, although developing independently, has dwindled to a beaklike process and fuses with and becomes part of the scapula. It does not articulate with the sternum.

The clavicle is present generally in those placental mammals (primates, many rodents and marsupials, and others) that have prehensile (i.e., capable of grasping) forelimbs or whose forelimbs are adapted for flying (e.g., bats). In many mammals it is suppressed or reduced, as in cats, or absent, as in whales, sea cows, and hoofed animals.