Willem J. Hillenius.  2000.  Journal of Morphology 245:29-50.

Abstract: The function of the septomaxilla of non-mammalian synapsids has long been problematic. Distinctive features of this bone, including a prominent intranarial process, and a septomaxillary canal and foramen, are characteristic of pelycosaurs and non-mammalian therapsids, but are lost in their mammalian descendants. Numerous contradictory reconstructions have been proposed for the soft anatomy associated with the septomaxilla of non-mammalian synapsids. This review supports the following conclusions: (1) No particular correlation exists between the septomaxilla and the vomeronasal organ (VNO), and the most likely location for the VNO is on the dorsal surface of the palatal process of the vomer; (2) The most likely occupant of the septomaxillary canal is the nasolacrimal duct, which opened either anterior or medial to the intranarial process, near the opening of the VNO duct; and (3) The occupant of the septomaxillary foramen remains uncertain. These conclusions suggest that the functional significance of the septomaxilla in the non-mammalian synapsids is tied to that of the nasolacrimal duct. The association of this duct and the VNO in these animals resembles the condition in Recent amphibians and lepidosaurs, in which the nasolacrimal duct supplies orbital fluids to the VNO, apparently to enhance vomeronasal function. The peculiar shape of the synapsid septomaxilla may have served to collect vomeronasal odor molecules. The changes of the septomaxilla in early mammals, and its nearly complete loss in extant mammals, are probably correlated with a dissociation of the nasolacrimal duct and VNO, and functional changes in both structures.