INTRODUCTION. 



EXTIXCT ANIMALS. 



structure to the body and tail of the mammalia. The skull, also, is small, the head being furnished 

 with a beak which has not less than sixty pointed teeth. These singular characteristics, so puz- 

 zling to investigators, it was reserved for the genius of Cuvier to reconcile. He ranks the ptero- 

 dactyles among the most extraordinary of all extinct animals ; and if we could see them restored 

 to life, they would strike us as being singularly unlike any thing that exists in the present world. 

 Many species have been discovered, varying from the size of a snipe to that of a cormorant. In 

 external form, these creatures bore a resemblance to the bat or vampire. The snout was elongated 

 like that of the crocodile, and armed with conical teeth. The eye, as appears from the orbit, must 

 have been of enormous size, thus fitting them, like the bat, to fly by night. They resembled the 

 bat also in having fingers, terminating with long hooks, which projected from their wings. They 

 were thus furnished with a powerful paw, which enabled them to creep, or climb, or hang from the 

 trees. It is thought, also, that the pterodactyle, like some existing species of bats in the East, pi »s- 

 sessed the power of swimming. 



As this creature had wings, it was natural to look for the structure of the bird or bat in the 

 hones. The beak, however, had teeth, and the form of a single bone enabled Cuvier to decide 

 that the animal belonged to the lizard tribe, so that it was a kind of flying reptile. The vertebras 

 of the neck, also, are to those of birds only as six or seven to from nine to twenty-three, while 

 those of the back are in the reverse proportion ; the ribs, too, like those of the lizard, are thin and 

 thread-shaped, and thus differ from those of birds, as do the bones of the feet and toes. They are 

 supposed to have fed on insects, and the presence of large fossil dragon-flies and other insects in the 

 same quarries where the pterodactyles are found proves that they existed at the same period, and 

 probably formed a portion of their food. They may also have fed upon fish, and some of the 

 small marsupial animals, or those of the opossum kind, which then existed on the earth.. The 

 creature was evidently capable of perching on trees, or standing firmly on the ground, and, by 

 folding its wings, could hop or walk like a bird. 



Dr. Buckland, alluding to the peculiarities of the pterodactyle, and the age in which it lived, 

 says: "Thus, like Milton's fiend, qualified for all services and all elements, the creature was a fit 

 companion for the kindred reptiles that swarmed in the seas or crawled on the shores of a 

 turbulent planet. 



Vol. I.— 2 



