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On the Discovery of a new species of Pterodactyle, and of Fossil 

 Ink and Pens, in the Lias at Lyme Regis ; also of Coprolites 

 or Fossil Faeces in the Lias at Lyme Regis, and Westhury- 

 on-Severn, and elsewhere, in formations of all ages, from 

 the Carbon ferous Limestone to the Diluvium. By the Rev. 

 W. BucKLAND, D. D. F. R. S. F. L. S. F. G. S. and Pro- 

 fessor of Geology and Mineralogy in the University of Ox- 

 ford. 



In the course of the last session of the Geological Society of 

 London, several papers on the above subjects were communi- 

 cated by Professor Buckland, the substance of which is collected 

 in the following notice ; the papers themselves being in course 

 of publication in the Transactions of the Society. 



I. Pterodactyle. — This specimen of pterodactyle was dis- 

 covered in December last, by Miss Mary Anning, and belongs 

 to a new species of that extinct genus, hitherto recognised only 

 in the lithographic Jura-limestone of SoUenhofen, which the 

 author considers as nearly coeval with the English chalk. The 

 head is wanting, but the rest of the skeleton, though dislocated, 

 is nearly entire ; and the length of the claws so much exceeds 

 that of the claws of the Pterodactylus longirostris and brevi- 

 rostris (of which the only two known specimens are minutely 

 described by Cuvier), as to shew that it belongs to another spe- 

 cies, for which the name of Pterodactylus macronyx is pro- 

 posed ; it is about the size of a common crow, and a drawing 

 of this fossil by Mr Clift accompanies the paper. The author 

 had for some time past conjectured, that certain small bones 

 found in the lias at Lyme Regis, and referred to birds, belono- 

 rather to the genus Pterodactyle. This conjecture is now veri- 

 fied. It was also suggested to him, in 1823, by Mr J. S. Mil- 

 ler of Bristol, that the bones in the Stonesfield-slate, which have 

 been usually considered as derived from birds, ought to be at- 

 tributed to this extraordinary family of flying reptiles: Dr 

 Buckland is now inclined to adopt this opinion, and is disposed 

 to think still further, that the coleopterous insects, whose elytra 

 occur in the Slonesfield-slate, may have formed the food of the 



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