230 FOSSIL REPTILES. 



great esteem, continually present impressions offish and Crus- 

 tacea, entirely unknown in Germany at present ; and, in all 

 probability, in living nature itself. Some reptiles, also, of 

 very curious kinds, have been found there ; among which, the 

 pterodactyliy which shall be described hereafter, are particu- 

 larly to be remarked. 



These schists belong to that prolongation of the chain of 

 Jura which, after the fall of the Rhine at SchafFhouse, extends 

 into Germany, over the borders of the Mein, near Cobourg. 

 The sides of the valley of the Altmuhl are very precipitous, 

 and it is easy to see, over two hundred feet of height, the 

 strata which compose them. The calcareous schists, so abun- 

 dant in fishes, in Crustacea, in reptiles, and even in asterise, 

 but which contain scarcely any other shells but two species 

 of tellinse, and some small ammonites, occupy the summit. 

 They rest on a considerable mass of magnesian limestone. It 

 is not stratified, and scarcely exhibits any traces of petrifac- 

 tions. This, and the schists which cover it, do not prevail at 

 all, to any extent, through the chain of Jura. They only begin 

 to appear between Donawert and Noodlingen. The said lime- 

 stone extends much farther northward than the schists, and 

 the celebrated caverns filled with bones, which we have men- 

 tioned, when treating of the fossil mammalia, exist in it. 

 Under it are banks of limestone of a greyish white, abounding 

 in ammonites, and furnishing enormous frieze-stones, and a 

 brownish or greyish sandstone, of a fine grain, which consti- 

 tutes the bases of all the hills in this district. The most cele- 

 brated of these quarries is that of Solenhofien, in the very 

 valley of the Altmuhl, a little below Pappenheim. Here was 

 found a remarkable fossil, which has been described by M. de 

 Soemmering. 



The two plates containing it are of a marly calcareous schist, 

 yellowish gray, spotted with red and yellow oxide of iron, and 

 mixed here and there with parcels of quartz, with very delicate 

 blackish and crystallized veins. Some impressions have been 



