THE GEOLOGICAL RECORD 



Order Ornithosauria 



209 



We come finally to one of the most remarkable develop- 

 ments of reptilian life, the bird-lizards, more commonly 

 known as Pterodactyls, which accompanied all the other 

 strange forms of reptilian life in the Mesozoic period. They 



FIG. 63. SKELETON OF PTERODACTYLUS SPECTABILIS. 



From the Upper Jurassic of Bavaria. Nat. size. This early form has teeth and 

 a very short tail, and the body was not larger than that of a sparrow. 

 (B.M. Guide.) 



are first found a little later than the earliest Dinosaurs, in 

 the Lower Lias of Bavaria ; but as they are, even then, 

 fully developed, though small, there must have been a long 

 series of intermediate forms which probably reached back 

 to the Triassic if not to the Permian era. 



