The epiotic is often small, ossifies irregularly, and fuses with the supra-occipital.
The sternum has no keel, and ossifies from lateral and paired centres only; the axes of the scapula and cora.coid have the same general direction; certain of the cranial bones have characters very unlike those possessed by the next order - the vomer, for example, being broad posteriorly and generally intervening between the basisphenoidal rostrum and the palatals and pterygoids; the barbs of the feathers are disconnected; there is no syrinx or inferior larynx; and the diaphragm is better developed than in other birds.'
In most of the Caudata the scapular region alone ossifies, but in the Ecaudata the coracoid is bony and a clavicle is frequently developed over the praecoracoid car tilage.