The Flying Lizards of the Secondary Rocks. 447 



name of " Pterodactyle" {wing -finger), by which the group of 

 extinct winged lizards is still called. 



Although by far the most perfect specimens of the order 

 Pterosauria have hitherto been obtained from the Upper Oolite 

 of Germany, its remains occur in various strata from the Upper 

 Keuper to the Chalk — proving its existence through that great 

 period of geological time represented by the entire Secondary 

 rocks — and in many localities both in this country and in 

 Germany. 



Both the examples figured in the accompanying woodcut 

 are from the Lithographic Limestone near Eichstatt, in Bavaria, 

 and are selected as illustrating two extreme forms of Pterodac- 

 tyles in structure and size from that place. Fig. 1 is among the 

 most perfect, as well as the smallest specimen known — P. brevi- 

 rostris, Somm., and also nearly the first discovered species. It 

 is represented of the natural size /* 



Fig. 2 is the almost perfect skeleton of Rhamphorhynchus 

 Gemmingii, Meyer, reduced to one-third the natural size (t.ix. f. 

 1), from H. Yon Meyer's magnificent work on the Reptiles of 

 the Lithographic Stone of Germany and France, containing 

 twenty-one double folio plates, published in 1860. This speci- 

 men was discovered in 1854. Fig. 3 is a conjectural restoration 

 of fig. 2. 



The specimens of Rliamphorhynclivs in the British Museum 

 consist of one, in which the lower jaw, the long wing-fingers, and 

 the hind limbs attached to the pelvis, with the perfect tail, are 

 beautifully exhibited ; and a larger individual, having the head, 

 tail, fingers, and both feet very well preserved. Numerous por- 

 tions of Pterodactyles have been found in Germany and elsewhere, 

 but the two first discovered, P. longirostris\ and P. crassirostris,^ 

 Goldf., being almost entire skeletons, may still be considered 

 among the most important specimens. We have in the National 

 Collection casts of both these, besides the actual remains of Ptero- 

 dactyles from the Lias of Lyme Regis, the Stonesfield Slate and 

 Cambridge Greensand, etc., and those lately acquired from 

 Solenhofen, and it is to be hoped we shall have, when sufficient 

 space is allotted for Palaeontology, copies of all the remarkable 

 specimens of this class which can be procured. Without entering 

 unnecessarily into anatomical details, we can easily perceive 

 many striking peculiarities of structure in the skeletons before us. 

 The dissimilarity of the skulls of figs. 1 and 2 is very notice- 

 able, and may be regarded as indicative of differences of habit 

 in respect of food, and the method of obtaining it, as is the 



* Somraerring, Munich Acad., 1820. Cuvier, Oss. Foss., 1836, pi. 251, f. 7. 

 Auckland's liritlgeivater Treatise, vol. ii , pi. 22, f. O. 

 t Cuvier, Oss. Foss., p. 359, t. 23. f. 1. 

 £ Groldfuss, in Leopold Akad., xv. p. 63, t. 7 — 9. 



