xi. RHAMPHORHYNCHUS BUCKLANDL 219 



ft. in. 

 Head . . . . 5 



1 7 Cervical vertebrae. 

 Trunk, with sacrum .9 7 > ' 



J 1 6 Trunk vertebra. 



Sacrum . , . . I 10 5 Vertebrae. 

 Tail . . . . 12 6 36 Vertebrae. 



28 n 64 



In this computation it now appears probable that too great a 

 length is assigned to the head and neck ; on the other hand, taking 

 the maximum number in crocodiles, perhaps the vertebrae might be 

 counted to sixty-eight, and thus the general result would be not 

 materially varied. I am disposed to think the length rarely ex- 

 ceeded twenty-five feet. If the analogy to the monitors were 

 followed, the tail might be very much longer. The weight of the 

 animal must have reached two or three tons. 



RHAMPHORHYNCHUS BUCKLANDL 



It was not only by great size that the class of reptiles maintained 

 their pre-eminence in former times ; still more remarkable were they 

 for varied and singular forms which are without living parallels. 

 The race now to be considered were flyers, but not by means of 

 extended ribs, like the modern lizards called dragons ; nor by 

 feathered wings without distinct digital bones, as birds; nor by 

 self-folding membranes stretched on elongated fingers, like bats. 

 Their flying organs were supported on a single wing-finger ter- 

 minated by a long pointed bone, while the other fingers were short 

 and bore hooked claws. With their long neck and bird-like beak, 

 these aerial creatures seem hardly to be genuine reptiles, but have 

 that heteroclite aspect which in some biological speculations has 

 been readily admitted for the past periods of the earth's history, 

 though resolutely refused for the present. 



Fresh from the study of megalosaurus, whose structure and 

 functions in life made some considerable approach to the almost 

 wingless struthionidse, we see in the pterodactylians, on the con- 

 trary, forms imitative of birds which, like the albatross, pelecanidae, 

 and terns, have superior powers of flight sustained by wings of 

 unusual length. Well might Cuvier, some of whose thoughts we 

 are here unfolding, conclude that of all the strange beings which 



