Dragons of the Air: An Account of Extinct Flying ReptilesSeeley, H. G. (Harry Govier)
Science
Dragons of the Air: An Account of Extinct Flying Reptiles
Seeley, H. G. (Harry Govier)
Pterosauria
These illustrations may be accepted as demonstrating a relationship
between the Ornithosaurs and Dinosaurs now compared, which can only be
explained as results of influence of a common parentage upon the forms
of the bones. But more interesting than resemblances of that kind is the
similarity that may be traced in the way in which air is introduced into
cavities in the bones in both groups. In some of the imperfectly known
Dinosaurs, like Aristosuchus, Coelurus, and Thecospondylus, the bone
texture is as thin as in Pterodactyles, and the vertebræ are excavated
by pneumatic cavities, which are amazing in size when compared with the
corresponding structures in birds, for the vertebra is often hollowed
out so that nothing remains but a thin external film like paper for its
thickness. In the Dinosaurian genus Coelurus this condition is as well
marked in the tail and back as it is in the neck. The essential
difference from Birds appears to be that in the larger carnivorous
Dinosaurs the pneumatic condition of the bones is confined to the
vertebral column; while Birds and Pterodactyles have the pneumatic
condition more conspicuously developed in the limb bones. The pneumatic
skeleton, however, appears to be absent from the herbivorous types like
Iguanodon and all Dinosaurs which have the Bird-like form of pelvis, and
are most Bird-like in the forms of bones of the hind limb. It is
possible that some of the carnivorous Dinosaurs also possessed limb
bones with pneumatic cavities. Many of those bones are hollow with very
thin walls. If their cavities were connected with the lungs the foramina
are inconspicuous and unlike the immense holes seen in the sides of the
vertebræ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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