248 HISTORICAL PALHONTOLOGY. 
structure and probable way of life would lead us to assimilate 
Rhamphorhynchus, the answer must voint to the swimming 
Fig. 179.—Rhamphorhynchus Buckland?, restored. Bath Oolite, England. 
(After the late Professor Phillips.) 
races with long wings, clawed feet, hooked beak, and habits of 
violence and voracity ; and for preference, the shortness of the 
legs, and other circumstances, may be held to claim for the 
Stonesfield fossil a more than fanciful similitude to the groups 
of Cormorants, and other marine divers, which constitute an 
effective part of the picturesque army of robbers of the sea.” 
Another extraordinary and interesting group of the Mesozoic 
Reptiles is constituted by the Deinosauria, comprising a series 
of mostly gigantic forms, which range from the Trias to the 
Chalk. All the “ Deinosaurs” are possessed of the two pairs 
of limbs proper to Vertebrate animals, and these organs are in 
the main adapted for walking on the dry land. Thus, whilst 
the Mesozoic seas swarmed with the huge Ichthyosaurs and 
Plesiosaurs, and whilst the air was tenanted by the Dragon-like 
Pterosaurs, the land-surfaces of the Secondary period were 
peopled by numerous forms of Deinosaurs, some of them of 
even more gigantic dimensions than their marine brethren. 
The limbs of the Dezzosaurs are, as just said, adapted for pro- 
gression on the land; but in some cases, at any rate, the 
hind-limbs were much longer and stronger than the fore-limbs ; 
and there seems to be no reason to doubt that many of these 
forms possessed the power of walking, temporarily or perman- 
ently, on their hind-legs, thus presenting a singular resemblance 
to Birds. Some very curious and striking ‘points connected 
with the structure of the skeleton have also been shown to 
connect these strange Reptiles with the true Birds; and such 
high authorities as Professors Huxley and Cope are of opinion 
that the Deinosaurs are distinctly related to this class, being in 
some respects intermediate between the proper Reptiles and 
the great wingless Birds, like the Ostrich and Cassowary. On 
the other hand, Professor Owen has shown that the Deinosaurs 
