NOTES AIs'D QTJERTES. 



199 



bone, which lies close to the extremity of each fore-arm, there issues a 

 radiate fan of feathers, by which, therefore, as a structure of this kind ra- 

 diates from each fore-arm, two feather-wings are produced, having their 

 external outline curved like a bow. The individual feathers are charac- 

 terized by their fine shafts, on each side of which the delicate striation of 

 the vanes is seen. The largest of these feathers considerably exceed in 

 size that described by Von Meyer. Similar feathers are attached to the 

 tail, but with this distinction, that they do not attain the lejigth of the 

 wing feathers, and, which is of more importance, they do not radiate like 

 the latter from one central point, but spring from both sides of the tail 

 throughout its whole length, and start from it at a small angle. The tail- 

 feathers form a group of an elongated leaf-like or oval shape, of which the 

 narrow end issues from the beginning of the tail, whilst the posterior end 

 is broadly rounded, and extends considerably beyond the last caudal ver- 

 tebra." 



On this report Professor Wagner, who had not seen the specimen him- 

 self, commented at great length. The characters which, according to him, 

 indicate the ornithic affinity of this animal are — the clothing of the an- 

 terior limbs, and the tail with feathers, and the structure of the tarsus 

 which forms a single bone, which has at its lower extremity three processes 

 for the articulation of the three toes. The characters incompatible with 

 the type of birds are — the insertion of the wing quills, not as in birds, along 

 the whole outside of the hand and fore-arm, but only to a small bone pro- 

 bably belonging to the wrist, from which it radiates like a fan. "Equally 

 strange is the mode of attachment of the feathers on the tail, from which 

 they issue on both sides throughout its whole length uniformly amongst 

 themselves, whilst the rectrices on the short tail of birds are only attached to 

 the last vertebra." The vertebral structure is different from the ornithic type, 

 " but agrees most closely with that of the long- tailed Pterodactyles (Eam- 

 phorhynchus)." In birds, the sacro-lumbar column is firmly anchylosed. 

 In the fossil, it is free and uncovered. In birds, the tail is short and 

 powerful, composed of from five to eight, and rarely nine or ten vertebrae, 

 each bearing processes, the last being usually the largest. "In the fossil, 

 the tail is extraordinarily long, and consists of about twenty vertebrae, which 

 are all elongated, slender, and without processes, the last being the smallest." 

 Such a structure accords with that of the long-tailed Pterodactyle. 



In Professor Wagner's concluding remarks, he says, "A reptile with 

 the simple tarsal bone of a bird, and with epidermic structures presenting 

 a deceptive resemblance to bird's feathers, is far more comprehensible to 

 me than a bird with the pelvis and vertebral column (especially the long 

 slender series of caudal vertebrae) of a long-tailed Pterodactyle, and with 

 a perfectly different mode of attachment of the feathers. To this we may 

 add, that the identity of these epidermic structures with true birds' feathers 

 is by no means proved ; they might still only be peculiar adornments. 

 Even amongst insects, we find peculiar structures to a certain extent re- 

 minding us of feathers ; why therefore not also, and in a higher stage of 

 development, among reptiles ? If nothing of the kind has yet been found 

 in the latter class, we have already been accustomed in palaeontology to 

 meet, in recent discoveries, with previously unknown peculiarities in the 

 structure of different organs. Consequently, until I shall be convinced 

 by the discovery, in another specimen, of the parts wanting in the one 

 now under consideration, I do not hesitate to regard this as a reptile of the 

 order Sauria ; and I give it the name of Grip'/iosaurus, derived from 

 yplipos, an enigma." 



He further hints that animals analogous to the Gri^hosaurus may pos- 



