162 
PEOFESSOE OWEX ON THE YEETEBEAL 
tion of their reptilian type of structure for flight, in reference to caiTving out the com- 
parison of their skeleton with that of birds. I have therefore thought the summaiT of 
observations might not be unworthy the attention of the Eoyal Society, which I have 
made, as opportunities presented themselves, for some years past, on the vertebral 
characters of diflerent species of the order Pterosauria. 
Before entering upon such summary, I may briefly allude to the recorded obsenations 
on the subject. Baron Cuviee, in his celebrated memou- establishing the reptilian 
character of the Ornithocephalus of Soemmeeing, which he, thereupon, proposed to call 
‘ Pterodactyle,’ almost restricts himself to a comparison of. the number of the ceiwical 
and dorsal vertebrge in the Pterodactyle and Bmd*. Five of the ceiwical vertebrie of 
Pterodactylus longirostris are stated to be “large and prismatic like those of long- 
necked bh’ds”f. With regard to the dorsal vertebrse, “the spinous processes of the 
anterior ones are a little longer, those of the posterior ones are short and cut squaref 
The able editors of the posthumous edition of the ‘ Ossemens FossBes found nothmg 
to add, in 1836, to the above-cited brief notices by the Baron on the vertebree of the 
Pterodactyle, nor has anything material been with certainty determined and stated since 
that time. . 
The Pterodactylus suevicus described and figured by Professor Queastedt m ^ oo. 
was perhaps in the best condition to have thrown some additional light upon the subject; 
but the most important remark relates to one of the dorsal vertebree., m ’^hich - the 
articular surfaces of the body are convex at the back end, as m the Crocodile, concaAe 
at the fore part. At least so it seems; writes the author §. 
In regard to the cervical vertebrse, the author says, “ they seem not to have the 
trochlear joints as in Birds, yet a small cavity may be observed on the articular 
sur'fS'Cos jj 
Accordingly, Professor Pictet, in the able summary of the characters of extinct reptiles 
in the last edition of his ‘ Paleontologie ’ (8vo, 1857), limits his notice of the ^eitebial 
characters of the Pterodactyles to their number in the diflerent regions of the spine. 
From observations made on species of Pterosauria, extending from the period of the 
Lias, as exemplified by the Dimorjyhodon macronycc, to the Upper Greensand, as exem- 
plified by the Pterodactylus Sedgwickii and Pter. Fittoni, I am now able to state that, both 
* Ossemens Eossiles, ed. 8vo. tom. x. (1836), p. 215, 222. 
t “ On y Toit cinq vertebres, grandes et prismatiques comme celles des oiseaux ^ long cou,” tom. cit. 
P- 232. , . . ^ ^ 
+ » Les apophyses epineuses anterieures sout un pen plus longues ; les posteneui-es sont courtes et cou- 
pees carrement,” ih. p. 233. The figures show that the author is not speaking of two kmds of spmous pro- 
cesses on the same vertebra. . ^ , j-, j 
§ “ Die Oelenkflache der 'Wirbelkorper war auf der Hinterseite convex, vie beim Crokodi , vorn agegen 
concav. So scheint es wenigstens.”— Q uenstedt, Heber Fterodactylm suevicus im Lithographischeu 
Schiefer Wurtembergs, 4to. 1855, p. 45. i r j 
11 “ Sie scheinen nicht das Nussgelenk wie bei Vogeln zu haben, obwohl man erne klenie Grube auf der 
Gelenkflache wahrnimmt,” ib. p. 40. 
