- 
re 
. to five a One species referred to this ge 
y small, 
APPENDIX: 
Arr. XLVI IL—Prineipal Characters of American Cretaceous 
Prerodactyls ; by Professor O. C. Marsu. Part LL The 
Skull of Pteranodon. (With Plate XV.) 
THE first remains of Pterodactyls discovered in this country 
Were found by the writer, in the antumn of 1870, near the 
Smoky Hill iver, in Western Kansas. These belonged to a 
Sigantic species, which was described by the writer in 1871, 
and is now known as Pteranodon occidentalis. The geological 
horizon of these fossils was in the Middle Cretaceous, in the 
Same deposits that contain the Odontornithes, or Birds with 
teeth. In the following year, additional specimens were 
Secured by the writer in the same region, and referred to two 
hew species of the same genus.* 
In 1872, the writer again visited this region, and made a 
careful search for other specimens, and for several subsequent 
years had parties exploring the same deposits systematically, 
with good results; so that at the present time the remains 0 
more than six hundred individuals of these reptiles have been 
Secured from this horizon, and are now in the museum of 
Yale Colle 
The most of these remains represent gigantic species, the 
largest having a spread of wings of nearly, or quite, twenty-five 
eet. These all belong to the genus Pteranodon, and pertain 
renus Was com- 
ournal, vi 
* This. J ol. i, p. 472, June, 1871; vol. iii, p. 241, April, 1872, 
and p. 374, May, 1872. ‘ au ; 
