KOTES A'SB QrERTES. 
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 length 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 witli 
the type of birds are — the insertion of the wing quilis, 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 
thej^ 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 diflerentfrom 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 rarel}' nine or ten vertebrie, 
each bearing processes, the last being usually the largest. "In the fossil, 
the tail is extraordinarily long, and consists of about twenty vertebrse, 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 vertebrte) of a long-tailed Pterodactyle, and with 
a perfectly difierent 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 palfcontology 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 Griphosaurus, derived from 
yp7cf)09, an enigma." 
He further hints that animals analogous to the Gi^ipliosaurus may pos- 
