34 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



"By gradually increasing in size, the enlarged but perhaps still horny 

 hypothetical scales of the antebrachial margin would in time enable the 

 yet carnivorous and cursorial ancestor of Birds to take long strides or 

 leaps, much in the manner of a domesticated Goose or of a Stork when 

 starting, and ultimately develop to actual feathers; this epidermic cover 

 would also raise the temperature of the body, and thus help to increase 

 the mental and bodily activity of these rapacious forms." 



In 1913 Doctor Eobert Broom described the skeleton of a small fossil 

 reptile from the Upper Triassic beds of South Africa, which he named 

 Euparheria capensis. This animal, the type of which is in this museum, 

 belonged to an ancient group of reptiles called "Pseudosuchia," some of 

 which are found in the Triassic of Connecticut and others in the Upper 

 Triassic of Scotland, Germany and South Africa. This group is of ex- 

 ceptional interest to palaeontologists because of the largely primitive 

 character of certain of its genera, which show marked evidences of affinity 

 with such diverse later groups as Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs and Crocodilians. 

 In discussing the affinities of this group Dr. Broom^ said : 



"There is still another group to which some Pseudosuchian has prob- 

 ably been ancestral, namely, the Birds. For a time one or other of the 

 Dinosaurs was regarded as near the avian ancestor. The resemblance of 

 the hind limb and pelvis seemed to make this extremely probable, and 

 Huxley, Marsh, Cope, and others have all favored this view. Others, 

 however, were more impressed by the apparently avian characters in the 

 skeleton of the Pterodactyls, and especially in the striking avian appear- 

 ances in the brain, and have argued in favor of a close affinity between 

 the Birds and the Pterodactyls. Osborn, Avhile recognizing the affinities 

 to both groups, and especially to the Dinosaurs, believed that the Birds 

 and the Dinosaurs had a common ancestor, probably in the Permian. 

 Seven years ago, when describing the skeletogenesis of the Ostrich, I 

 argued that the bird had come from a group immediately ancestral to 

 the Theropodous Dinosaurs. The Pseudosuchia, now that it is better 

 known, proves to be Just such a group as is required. In those points 

 where we find the Dinosaur too specialized we see the Pseudosuchian still 

 primitive enough. The bird pelvis has probably developed from a type 

 like that of Ornithosuchus by the pubis turning further back and the 

 symphysis becoming lost. Whether the union of the metatarsals is a 

 primary or a secondary character is a debatable point. The question is 

 really whether the bird ancestor was a hopping bipedal animal before it 

 flew, or if it only hopped after the wing had became specialized. I am 



^Proc. Zool. Soc, 1913, pp. 631-632. 



