342 0. C. Marsh—American Pterodactyls. 
In its main features, the present specimen resembles the skull 
of the Ratite, more than that of any existing birds. Other 
parts of the skeleton will doubtless show still stronger reptilian 
characters. 
In the matrix attached to this skull, a single tooth was found, 
which most resembles the teeth of birds, especially those of 
Ichthyornis. It is probable that Laopleryx possessed teeth, and 
also biconcave vertebree. 
he specimen here described, and others apparently of the 
same species, were found in the upper Jurassic of Wyoming 
Territory, in the horizon of the Atlantosaurus beds. 
Yale College, New Haven, March 18, 1881. - 
Art. XLITL—WNote on American Pterodactyls ; by O. C. MARSH. 
THE Jurassic deposits of this country, up to the present time, 
have yielded only a single species of Pterosauria— Plerodactylus 
montanus Marsh.* The known remains are all fragmentary, 
but some of them indicate the general characters of the species 
and genus. Among the remains now in the Yale Museum are 
AMERICAN CRETACEOUS PTERODACTYLS. 
The representatives of the Pterosauria from the Cretaceous 
of this country all appear to be destitute of teeth, and have 
therefore been placed by the writer in the new order Plerano- 
dontia, from the type genus Pteranodon. ‘These are mostly of 
gigantic size, some having a spread of wings of nearly or quite 
twenty-five feet. These reptiles have one remarkable feature 
in the skeleton, unknown in any other animals. To al the 
* This Journal, vol. xvi, p. 233, Sept. 1878. 
