364 Prof, Huxley's Lecture 



selves, for a longer or shorter period, upon their hind legs. But the 

 discovery made in the Weald, by Mr Beckles, of pairs of large three- 

 toed foot-prints, of such a size and at such a distance apart that it is 

 difficult to believe they can have been made by anything but an 

 Iffuanodon, lead to the supposition that this vast reptile, and perhaps 

 others of its family, must have v^^alked, temporarily or permanently, 

 upon its hind legs. 



However this may be, there can be no doubt that the hind quarters 

 of the Dinosauria wonderfully approached those of birds in their 

 general structure, and therefore that these extinct Keptiles were more 

 closely allied to birds than any which now live. 



But a single specimen, obtained from those Solenhofen slates, to the 

 accident of whose existence and usefulness in the arts paleeontology is 

 so much indebted, affords a still nearer ajDproximation to the " missing 

 link " between reptiles and birds. This is the singular reptile which 

 has been described and named Compsognathits lungipes by the late 

 Andreas Wagner, and some of the more recondite ornithic affinities of 

 which have been since pointed out by Gegenbaur. Notwilhstanding 

 its small size (it was not much more than two feet in length), this 

 reptile must, I think, be placed among, or close to, the Dinosauria ; 

 but it is still more bird-like than any of the animals which are ordi- 

 narily included in that group. 



Compsognathus longipes has a light head, with toothed jaws, sup- 

 ported upon a very long and slender neck. The ilia are prolonged in 

 front of and behind the acetabulum. The pubes seem to have been 

 remarkably long and slender (a circumstance which rather favours the 

 interpretation of the so-called "clavicles" of Iguanodon as pubes). 

 The fore-limb is very small. The bones of the manus are unfor- 

 tunately scattered, but only four claws are to be found, so that pos- 

 sibly each manus may have had but two clawed digits. 



The hind limb is very lai'ge, and disposed as in birds. As in the 

 latter class, the femur is shorter than the tibia, a circumstance in 

 which Compsognathus is more ornithic than the ordinary Dinosauria. 



The proximal division of the tarsus is ankylosed with the tibia, as 

 in birds. In the foot the distal tarsals are not united with the three 

 long and slender metatarsals, which answer to the second, third, and 

 fourth toes. Of the fifth toe there is only a rudimentary metatarsal. 

 The hallux is short, and its metatarsal appears to be deficient at its 

 proximal end. 



It is impossible to look at the conformation of this strange reptile 

 and to doubt that it hopped or walked, in an erect or semi-erect 

 position, after the manner of a bird, to which its long neck, slight 

 head, and small anterior limbs must have given it an extraordinary 

 resemblance. 



I have now, I hope, redeemed my promise to show that, in past 

 times, birds more like reptiles than any now living, and reptiles more 

 like birds than any now living, did really exist. 



But, on the mere doctrine of chances, it would be the height of 

 improbability that the couple of skeletons, each unique of its kind, 

 which have been preserved in those comparatively small beds of 



