The primitive carpus

There is as yet no proof that the prepollex and postminimus ever occurred as actual digits. Romer's discovery of previous confusion of the preaxial with the postaxial fin border of Sauripterus allows a more accurate interpretation of primitive conditions. The latter involved essential asymmetry. The carpal cartilages of the Sauripterus type offin must have split into transverse rows. When the radius and ulna had become of equal length there was redistribution of the most proximal carpals, thus displacing elements in the other rows. It seems that eventually the original first carpale assumed the position and function of a first metacarpal, while the original fifth metacarpale assumed the position and function of a fifth carpale.