206 EXTINCT MONSTERS 



It was bought, by telegram, for Professor Marsh, and so secured 

 for the Yale College Museum ; but a cast may be seen at South 

 Kensington. 



Any one who looks carefully at the beautiful impressions of 

 the wings of this specimen can see that they must have been 

 produced by a thin smooth membrane, very similar to that of 

 bats. When this elegant little creature was covered up by the 

 fine soft mud that now forms the lithographic stone, its wings 

 were partly folded, so that the membranes were more or less 

 contracted into folds, like an umbrella only partly open. These 



FIG. 75. Skeleton of Ehamplwrhynchus phyllurus, with delicate impressions of 

 the flying membranes. (After Marsh.) 



appear to have been attached all along the arm and to the end of 

 the long finger. They then made a graceful curve backward to 

 the hind foot, and probably were continued beyond the latter so 

 as to join the tail. With its graceful pointed wings and long 

 tail, this little flying saurian must have been a beautiful object, 

 as it slowly mounted upwards from some cliff overlooking the 

 Jurassic seas. (See Plate XXXII.) 



Like those already described, it was provided with three short- 

 clawed fingers, as well as the one which mainly supported its 



