The Ornithosauria: An elementary study of the bones of Pterodactyles made from fossil remains found in the Cambridge Upper Greensand, and arranged in the Woodwardian Museum of the University of CambridgeSeeley, H. G. (Harry Govier)
Science
The Ornithosauria: An elementary study of the bones of Pterodactyles made from fossil remains found in the Cambridge Upper Greensand, and arranged in the Woodwardian Museum of the University of Cambridge
Seeley, H. G. (Harry Govier)
Pterosauria
There is a small tip of a jaw associated with this fossil, which is so
like that it might be part of the bone broken off before fossilization.
It corresponds in every way except that the teeth are closer. In this
terminal lanceolate fragment there are in 5/8ths of an inch four teeth.
The snout is terminated by two, which are close together.
VII.
Ornithocheirus Huxleyi (Seeley).
The only specimen of this species yet known is the greater part of a
dentary bone contained in the Museum of the Geological Survey. An inch
and 1/4 long and 3/4ths of an inch wide, it is less than half an inch
deep: the sides slowly converge towards the front, and it appears to
have had an obtusely lanceolate beak. The under surface is convex, too
inflated for trace of a keel, and tapers to the end of the beak, which,
with the left alveolar margin is abraded. The palatal surface is smooth
at its front end, but two diverging ridges soon arise and form the
boundary of a posteriorly deepening mesial channel, which is a quarter
of an inch wide at the fracture. These ridges too, which are parallel
with the compressed and rounded alveolar margins, convert the lateral
spaces into shallow channels. The right side shows the sockets of 3
small oval teeth separated by interspaces wider than teeth. A tooth and
two interspaces measure 7/16ths of an inch.
The only cretaceous Pterodactyle which this at all resembles is _O.
microdon_, but the palate is wider than in that species; the sides
converge towards each other more rapidly, as though it belonged to a
species with a shorter snout.
I am indebted to Prof. Huxley for the opportunity of making a notice of
this species.
VIII.
Ornithocheirus oxyrhinus (Seeley).
Case. Comp. Tablet. Specimen.
=J= _c2_ 13 1
This well-marked species is a portion of a premaxillary bone 1-1/4 inch
long, fractured behind and in front. The palate is half an inch wide;
its two halves are inclined to each other at a considerable angle, and
where they meet form a more prominent keel. The tooth-sockets look more
outward than downward, are nearly circular, separated by interspaces
as long as the sockets; three sockets and two interspaces measure one
inch. The jaw is about 5/8ths of an inch high in front, and about
1/16th of an inch higher behind. The sides are flat and converge like
the sides of a wedge to a sharp rostral keel.
IX.
Ornithocheirus xyphorhynchus (Seeley).
I have seen but one example of this form. It has lost much of the outer
layer of bone, and shows on the sides impressions like tooth-marks from
an eater of Pterodactyles. A groove which has some appearance of being
due to fracture traverses each side, but the specimen is symmetrical,
and has its characters in no way changed by the accident.
It is a portion of a lower jaw of a long-beaked Pterodactyle of the
_O. Sedgwicki_ type, with parallel sides, and the rounded basal ridge
nearly parallel with the palate.
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