THIRD AXXUAL MEETING 



21 



the detached jaw mistook it for that of a fish. So it came about that 

 the discovery of birds witli teeth fell to Yale University in 1873, when 

 teeth were discovered by Marsh in Hcspcrornis regalls, from the chalk 

 in the upper Cretaceous of Kansas. 



IIESPEUORXIS 



This was a genuine and brilliant discovery, and those interested may 

 find a full account of it in Professor Marsh's monograph entitled 

 Odontornithes. It is the irony of fate itself that this iieculiarly impor- 

 tant discovery was made about the time Owen and others were being 

 criticised by the English clergy and press for the statement that enabry- 

 ology showed germ teeth in certain living birds and that modern birds 

 had descended through a long line of toothed reptilian ancestors, and 

 the. discovery effectually closed the debate on the subject. 



The writer hopes that it may be germane to the subject to mention 

 parenthetically that as a student, and subsequently as an assistant, he 

 repeatedly saw parties of men aiul women, far more religiously zealous 



46 47 



m 



Fig. 46 — Caudal vertebrae of a Lizard. 



Fig. 47 — Caudal vertebrae of the Lizard-bird, Archae- 

 opteri/.i\ without trace of pygostyle in the twenty 

 vertebrae, eacli of which bore a pair of quill 

 fea tilers. 



Fig. 48 — Caudal vertebrae of the Giant Diver of the 

 cretaceous, Ilexperornis reqalis, consisting of twelve 

 vertebrae, the seven terminal ones being broad- 

 ened and modified into a sort of pygostyle. 



Fig. 49 — Caudal vertebrae of the toothed-bird, Ich- 

 thjiornis victor, showing five vertebrae terminating 

 in a small though perfectly developed pygostyle. 



Fig. 50 — Caudal vertebrae of a modern bird with 

 perfectly developed pygostyle. Compare the ar- 

 rangement of feathers with that of the Lizard- 

 bird. 



T.^ILS OF LIZARD, LIZ.\RD-BIUD, .VXD TRUE BIRDS FOR COMPARISON' 



