592 THE UNIVERSE. 



considered as the most abnormal races of the ancient 

 world. They were remarkable for their turtle-like fins, 

 and especially for the thinness and extreme length of their 

 serpent-like necks. The arrangement of the skeleton in 

 the Plesiosaurus led Mr. Conybeare to think that it swam 

 ordinarily on the surface of the waves, curving back its 

 long flexible neck like a swan, and darting forward with 

 it from time to time in order to seize the fish which ap- 

 proached it. Their paws, analogous to those of the sea- 

 turtles, induced this learned Englishman to think also that 

 the Plesiosauri, like these reptiles, sometimes issued from 

 the sea and sought refuge amid the j^lants, in order to 

 evade their dangerous enemies, which were beyond all 

 doubt the Ichthyosauri. 



If any of the animals which the remote periods of the 

 globe present to our notice are to be looked upon as 

 monsters, we submit that in this respect the first place is 

 due to the Pterodactyli, Avhich remind one of the ancient 

 dragons of legendary tradition. Their structure is so 

 paradoxical that one does not really know where to place 

 them; they were alternately looked upon as birds, mam- 

 mals, and reptiles. De Blainville, embarrassed, as indeed 

 all the learned Avorld were, formed a separate class for 

 them in the animal kingdom.^ 



The aspect of the pterodactyl was necessarily very 

 strange. When naturalists tried to restore their frames, 

 the figures they produced were more like the offspring of 

 some diseased imagination than realities. They Avere 

 really reptiles furnished with large wings, and resembled 

 enormous bats, having a very pointed head supported on 



1 There were air-cavities in tlie bones of the pterodactyls, and the coracoid 

 process, tlie scapula, and the broad sternum with its median crest, allied them in 

 anatomical points to bii'ds. — Popular Hcience Review, vol. vii. p. 242. — Tr. 



