PTERODACTYLE. 221 
SECTION VIII. 
PTERODACTYLE.* 
Among the most remarkable disclosures made 
by the researches of Geology, we may rank the 
flying reptiles, which have been ranged by 
CuYier under the genus Pterodactyle ; a genus 
presenting more singular combinations of form, 
than we find in any other creatures yet disco- 
vered amid the ruins of the ancient earth. f 
The structure of these animals is so exceed- 
ingly anomalous, that the first discovered Ptero- 
dactyle (PI. 21) was considered by one natu- 
ralist to be a bird, by another as a species of bat, 
and by a third as a flying reptile. 
This extraordinary discordance of opinion 
respecting a creature whose skeleton was almost 
entire, arose from the presence of characters 
apparently belonging to each of the three classes 
to which it was referred. The form of its head, 
and length of neck, resembling that of birds, its 
wings approaching to the proportion and form of 
* See PI. 1, Figs. 42, 43, and Plates 21, 22. 
t Pterodactyles have hitherto been found chiefly in the quar- 
ries of lithographic limestone of the jura formation at Aichstadt 
and Solenhofen ; a stone abounding in marine remains, and also 
containing Libellulse, and other insects. They have also been 
discovered in the lias at Lyme Regis, and in the oolitic slate of 
Stonesfield. 
