'>■ 



/(rl ■ 



Pt|' GIANTS AND PIGMIES. 



25. The next of our Saurians in geological order are the 

 ■winged Saurians (Pteropaurs or Pterodactyls). The Bat is a 

 Pterodactyl, but not a Pterosaur. It is a mammal, while our 

 present subjects are reptiles. Some of them are, in size, like 

 common bats, pigmean. The restored ones on the Geological 

 Island are eagledike in their dimensions ; the spread of their 

 wings was probably 10 feet. They have heads, in some cases, 

 e. (J., the Crassirontrts equal to the length of the body. Tho 

 mouth is armed with formidable teeth. In Kansas some have 

 been found double the size of the largest European, 20 to 25 

 feet. Those on the Island perched upon a rocky projection 

 with wings folded or partially expanded, were uncouth and 

 monstrous. They were of Liassic and Cretaceous age. The 

 next order of Saurians were of the Upper Chalk ; they are 

 named RIososaurs — IVIeuse — Saurians. They were so named, 

 as the first one discovered was the Mitsosaurus Hofmanni. 

 This was found at Maestricht, on the River Meuse in Belgium. 

 The head, of which there is a beautiful figure in Buckland's 

 Bridgewater Treatise, was there discovered. The cast of 

 nearly an entire skull was presented to the British Museum by 

 Cuvier, wlio published details of the animal in his great work, 

 Ossentens Fossiles. They were great snake like reptiles, — 

 measuring from 15 to 75 feet in length. Their swimming 

 appliances were four paddles. The head of the Belgian was 

 about 4 feet in length. Hence their mouths were of enormous 

 size. Their jaws were constructed something like those of the 

 Boa Constrictor. They were thus enabled to swallow whole, 

 animals of large size. The mouth was filled with formidable 

 teeth. Some of these measure above the jaw an inch and 

 two-tenths ; with the root, two inches and eight-tenths, being 

 shaped like the teeth of the Ichthyosaurus, but larger in size. 

 The American rocks have furnished the largest of these and 

 forty species. The question of the existence of Sea Serpents 

 would have been readily solved in those days. 



In 1862 a specimen was secured for the British Museum of 

 unusual interest. One hundred pounds sterling was said to 

 have been paid for it. It was a slab of limestone from 

 Solenhofen with a very singular fossil. It had wing-foathcrs 



