Lateral view of the skulls of soricids. A Chondrocranium of a fetal stage (11 mm) of Sorex araneus (reversed) (modified from DeBeer 1929). The squamosal (sq) has not yet reached the frontal bone (fr); the elements of the jaw articulation, fossa glenoidalis and caput mandibulae, are quite apart, but have begun to differentiate as a joint (cf. fig. 19–21 in DeBeer 1929). B Skull of Crocidura russula (Coll. W. Maier) with lower jaw in situ. The suture with the parietal bone is visible, but rostrally the squamosum is tightly fused with the frontale. C Skull of Sorex araneus (SMF 82598). Note the enormous size of the processus glenoideus inferior (see below). Abbreviations: fr – frontale, sq – squamosum.