
1124 The American Naturalist. [December, 
The Skull and Hind Extremity of Pteranodon.—Early in 
the season of 1876 the writer collected from the Cretaceous of Kan- 
sas the first approximately complete skull known of an American 
Pterodactyl. Upon this specimen Professor Marsh, in the June num- 
ber of the American Journal of Science for that year, founded the 
‘‘order’’ Pteranodontia, expressly stating of the specimen that it 
might be ‘‘regarded as the type of the genus Pteranodon.” Eight 
years later, in the May number of the same journal, he gave a 
fuller description of this same specimen, figuring it under the name 
Pteranodon longiceps. 
The specimen consists of the skull alone, and was discovered partly 
exposed on a gently sloping surface, in the vicinity of Monument 
Rocks. Aside from an unfortunate stroke of the pick that chipped 
off the tip of the bill, the specimen was otherwise incomplete, in that 
the distal part of the occipital crest was lost. In his plate Professor 
Marsh restored this crest from the indications presented by the basal 
portion, but without indicating in his paper that such a conjectural 
restoration had been made. The result is unfortunate. 
e writer the present season has been fortunate in securing for 
the University of Kansas a yet more complete skull of apparently the 
same species, discovered by his assistant, Mr. E. G. Case, in the 
immediate vicinity of the place where Professor Marsh’s specimen was 
found. The specimen, while agreeing essentially with the type speci- 
men, has a crest not more than half as long as that figured by Marsh, 
and with a very different outline, in that the posterior inferior border 
is angulated and concave. The crest is much thinner than is figured 
by the artist. The animal did not have nearly so remarkable a skull 
as the figures would indicate. 
‘¢ There was apparently no ring of bony sclerotic plates, since in 
the best preserved specimens no traces of this has been found.” ? 
Nevertheless, well ossified sclerotic plates do exist in Pteranodon, as 
our specimen shows. They are from six to eight millimeters in diameter, 
and similar in texture and shape to, though without the imbrications 
of, those of the Mosasaurs (the so-called dermal scutes of Marsh). 
Several unusually perfect specimens in the Museum of Kansas Uni- 
versity enable me to give the chief characters of the pelvis and legs of 
Pteranodon, parts hitherto but little known, and which will be 
supplemented, as also those of the skull, by figures given later. 
In no especial respect do those parts present unusual features among 
3 Marsh, Amer. Journ. Sci., XXVII., p. 425. 
3 See Marsh, Amer. Journ. Sci., Dec., 1876. 




