Crossword-Solution: CARPALS 7 letters, 2 clues 🏆 scrabble score: 11

The metacarpals are free, not united as in the adult, and there are separate distal carpals, which in the adult are united with the metacarpals.

The thigh-bone, or femur, corresponds to the shoulder-bone, or humerus; the two shank bones (tibia and fibula) correspond to the two arm-bones (radius and ulna); the many little ankle-bones (tarsals) correspond to the many little wrist-bones (carpals); the foot-bones (meta-tarsals) correspond to the hand-bones (meta-carpals); and, lastly, the bones of each of the toes correspond to those of each of the fingers.

Indeed, in this fore-foot of _Chelydra_, a child could trace all the principal homologies of the mammalian counterpart, growing, like the next stage in a dissolving view, out of the primitive paddle of _Baptanodon_--namely, first the radius and ulna, next the carpals, then the meta-carpals, and, lastly, the three phalanges in each of the five digits.

Neither of these alternatives seems at all likely to us in view of the well-ossified condition of the elements that are present, and the occurrence of both the proximal carpals and the metacarpals.

The correspondence of the distal carpals with the several metacarpal bones of the middle hand is a well-known feature of the structure of the wrist.