Rabbit : Axis

• Axis or epistropheus is the second cervical vertebra.

• It has a broad centrum.

• Produced from the centrum is a peg like forward process, known as odontoid process.

• It articulates with atlas.

• Neural spine is long and compressed.

• Transverse processes are small and backwardly directed with vertebrarterial foramen at their bases.

• Pre – zygapophyses are absent, but Post – zygapophyses are present.