FLYING DRAGONS 



207 



wing. Some of the Continental museums contain good collections 

 of fossil Pterodactyls ; but the largest collection in the world is 

 that of Yale College, where Professor Marsh declares there are 



FIG. 76. Skull of Pteranodon. 1. Side view. 2. Top view. (After Marsh.) 



the remains of six hundred individuals from the American 

 Cretaceous rocks alone ! 



Some of the fragmentary remains from our Cambridge Green- 

 sand formation indicate Pterodactyls of enormous size. Thus 

 the neck-vertebrae of one species measure two inches in length, 

 while portions of arm-bones are three inches broad. It is 



FIG. 77. Skeleton of a toothless Flying Reptile (Pteraiwdon occidentalis), from 

 the Upper Cretaceous of Kansas, U.S.A. Natural History Museum. 



probable that the creatures to which these bones once belonged 

 measured eighteen or twenty feet from tip to tip of the wings. 

 Other also fragmentary remains from the chalk of Kent testify to 

 the existence of Pterodactyls during that period fully equal in 

 size. 



