442 



7. Februar 1S68 vor der Royal Institution of Great Britain: On the 

 Animals which are most nearly intermediate between Birds and Rep- 

 tiles. The Pop. Sc. Rev. vol. VII. 1868. pp. 237—247. 



Cope hingegen hat schon im December 1867 vor der Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia über denselben Punct gesprochen. 



Huxley hat dies auch in seiner zweiten Arbeit (Quart. Journ. 

 Geol. Soc. vol. 26. 1870. pp. 24 — 25) vollkommen anerkannt und 

 Cope's Artikel daselbst wörtlich wiedergegeben. Trotzdem fanden 

 Cope's Bemerkungen nicht die gebührende Würdigung. Ich gebe 

 daher im Folgenden Cope's Worte nochmals wieder: 



»Professor Cope gave an account of the extinct reptiles which 

 approached the birds. He said that this approximation appeared to be 

 at two points. The first by the Pterosauria, to Avhich the modified bird 

 Archaeopteryx presented points of affinity. The second, and one not 

 less striking, is by the Dinosauria of the Orders Goniopoda and Sym- 

 phypoda. He showed the essential differences between the ordinary 

 Dinosauria and the birds to consist in the distinct tarsal bones in tAvo 

 series, the anteriorly directed pubes, and the presence of teeth of the 

 first class. In the genus Laelaps Cope, type of the Goniopoda, the 

 proximal series of tarsal bones was principally represented by one large 

 astragaloid piece which had a very extensive motion on these of the 

 second series. This was immovably bound to, and embraced, the tibia, 

 and was perhaps continuous Avith the fibula, much resembling the 

 structure of the foot of the chick of the ninth day, as given by Gegen- 

 baur. The zygomatic arch was of a very light description. He Avas 

 convinced that the most bird- like of the tracks of the Connecticut 

 sandstone were made by a nearly allied genus, the Bathygnatlnis Leidy. 

 These creatures, no doubt, assumed a more or less erect position, and 

 the Aveight of the viscera, etc., was supported by the slender and dense 

 pubic bones, which were to some extent analogous to the marsupial 

 bones of Implacental Mammalia, though probably not homologous 

 Avith them. 



He said he was satisfied that the so-called clavicles of Iguanodon 

 and' otherj Dinosauria Avere pubes, having a position similar to these 

 of the Crocodilia. 



Also that a species of Laelaps had been observed in France, by 

 Cu vier, Avhich was different from the L. aquilunguis, and Avhich he 

 proposed should be called Laelaps gallicus. 



Compsogìiatìms Wagner, type of the Smphypoda, expressed the 

 characters of the latter in the entire union of the tibia and fibula Avith 

 the first series of tarsal bones, a feature formerly supposed to belong 

 to the class Aves alone, until pointed out by Gegenba ur. This genus 



