124 
EXTINCT MONSTERS. 
folded as birds keep their wings, which nevertheless might use its 
small anterior fingers to suspend itself from the branches of 
trees, but when at rest must have been ordinarily on its hind feet, 
like the birds again ; and also, like them, must have carried its 
neck sub-erect and curved backwards, so that its enormous head 
should not interrupt its equilibrium.” 
Pterodactylus macronyx, or, as it is now called, Dimorphodon 
macronyx (Fig. 32), was about the size of a raven. It was 
discovered in 1828 by the late Miss Mary Anning, the well-known 
collector of fossils from the Liassic rocks that form the cliffs along 
the coast of Dorsetshire, near Lyme-Regis. This important 
specimen was figured and described by Dr. Buckland, in the 
Transactions of the Geological Society. He suggested the specific 
name macronyx on account of the great length of the claws. 
This authority pointed out an unusual provision for giving 
support and power of movement to the large head at the extremity 
of a rather long neck, namely, the occurrence of fine long tendons 
running parallel to the neck-vertebrae. This does not occur in 
any modern lizards, whose necks are short, and require no such 
aid to support the head. They are a compensation for weakness 
that would otherwise arise from the elongation of the neck, sup- 
porting, as it did, such a large head. The neck-vertebrae in this 
species are large and strong, and capable of great flexibility 
forwards and backwards, so that the creature, by bending its neck 
during flight into the shape of an S, could throw its head back 
towards the centre of gravity. The restoration of the skeleton 
