ZOOLOGY. 37^ 



carpals were ancliylosecl. These have beeu distiiigiusLed as typical of 

 an order whicli has be^u called by Professor Marsh ''Odontotormwy 



Another form had vertebrse like those of living birds—?, e. saddle- 

 shaped— and the teeth, although well developed, were implanted in a 

 groove and not in distinct sockets. The wing bones in the typical forms 

 were small, and no metacarpals have been found. These have been 

 regarded as also constituting a distinct order, to which Professor Marsh 

 has given the name ^'■Odontolccc.''^ 



AECH^TiOPTERYX. 



It will be remembered that the scientific world was somewhat startled 

 by the discovery in 18G1 of the body of an animal in lithographic stone 

 at Solenhofen in Bavaria, which appeared to be intermediate between 

 the reptiles and the birds, and which exhibited a combination of charac- 

 teristics found in neither of those classes. While by some it was believed 

 to be a reptUe,by Professor Owen, who gave an elaborate monograph of 

 it, it was referred totheclassof birds, and since then has generally been 

 conceded to belong thereto. Lately a second specimen has been found by 

 Mr. Haberlein, a son of thediscoverer of the first, andhas been the subject 

 of a renewed examination by Prof. Carl A'ogt.* Some additional char- 

 acteristics have been revealed by the specimen; the head is preserved 

 in a much better condition than in the first specimen, and the jaws can 

 be examined. The latter in the upper mandible has two small conical 

 pointed teeth. The following summary gives the conclusion of Professor 



Vogt : 



" The head, the neck, the thorax with the ribs, the tail, the thoracic 

 girdle, and the whole anterior member are clearly constructed as in rep- 

 tiles; the pelvis has probably more relation to that of reptiles than that 

 of birds ; the posterior limb, on the contrary, is that of a bird. In all 

 respects the reptilian homologies predominate in the skeleton. There 

 remain the feathers. Here there is no doubt; they are birds' feathers 

 with a central rachis and with perfectly formed balbules. The horny 

 substance of the feathers has disappeared, but the model in the fine 

 paste of the lithographic gtone is so complete that we may study the 

 smallest details with the lens. The new slab shows all the feathers in 

 their place. The remiges are attached to their cubital margin of the arm 

 and hand; they are covered for about half their length with a fine fili- 

 form down ; none of the remiges projects beyond the others; the wing is 

 rounded in its outline like that of a fowl. It is possible that there was 

 at the base of the neck a collar similar to that of the condor ; at least it 

 has been thought that indications of such a thing could be seen. The 

 tibia was covered with feathers throughout its whole length. The Ar- 

 chceojpterijx therefore had breeches like our falcons, with which, accord- 



* Vogt (Carl). Ou Arcliaeopteryx macroura. Ann. Mag. Xat. Hist, (5,j vol. v, 1>Y». 

 183-188. (Translated from Bibliotheque UniverseUc. 1879, pp. 702-708. 



