124 



EXTINCT MONSTERS. 



folded as birds keep their wings, which nevertheless might use its 

 small anterior fingers to suspend itself from the branches of 

 trees, but when at rest must have been ordinarily on its hind feet, 

 like the birds again ; and also, like them, must have carried its 

 neck sub-erect and curved backwards, so that its enormous head 

 should not interrupt its equilibrium." 



Pterodactylus macronyx, or, as it is now called, Dimorphodon 

 macronyx (Fig. 32), was about the size of a raven. It was 

 discovered in 1828 by the late Miss Mary Anning, the well-known 

 collector of fossils from the Liassic rocks that form the cliffs along 

 the coast of Dorsetshire, near Lyme-Regis. This important 

 specimen was figured and described by Dr. Buckland, in the 



Fig, 32. — Skeleton oi Dimorphodon macronyx. (After Owen.) 

 Transactions of the Geological Society. He suggested the specific 

 name macronyx on account of the great length of the claws. 



This authority pointed out an unusual provision for giving 

 support and power of movement to the large head at the extremity 

 of a rather long neck, namely, the occurrence of fine long tendons 

 running parallel to the neck-vertebrae. This does not occur in 

 any modern lizards, whose necks are short, and require no such 

 aid to support the head. They are a compensation for weakness 

 that would otherwise arise from the elongation of the neck, sup- 

 porting, as it did, such a large head. The neck-vertebra in this 

 species are large and strong, and capable of great flexibility 

 forwards and backwards, so that the creature, by bending its neck 

 during flight into the shape of an S, could throw its head back 

 towards the centre of gravity. The restoration of the skeleton 



