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
The temporal bone rests upon the parietal and frontal, and forms much
of the temporal foss. Its anterior border does not appear to enter
into the margin of the orbital cavity as in birds, but seems to be
replaced by the post-frontal, which resembles that of the Chameleon.
Its hindmost branch, which can hardly be supposed to be the jugal,
forms the outer boundary of the temporal foss by uniting with a process
which is probably part of the mastoid. A similar closing of the cavity
for the temporal muscles is also to be found in birds. The jugal
and maxillary do not follow the bird type. The jugal consists of a
single bone which forms the greater part of the anterior and inferior
boundary of the cavity of the eye, which is surrounded with bones, as
in Dragons and Iguana. In those birds in which the cavity of the eye is
surrounded with bones the jugal does not enter into it. As in lizards,
at its upper end the jugal is commonly connected with the lachrymal,
which bone is like that of a bird. A bone, which appears to be the
pre-frontal, enters into the back of the nasal aperture.
The nostril is double and often of large size.
The perforation in the skull between the orbit and nares is bird-like.
The quadrate bone is not quadratic as in birds, but cylindrical and
shaft-like, as in the Chameleon. The articulation of the quadrate with
the lower jaw is placed further forward than in birds and reptiles. The
lower jaw, but for the teeth, has great similarity with that of a bird.
Among reptiles its nearest resemblance is with Chameleons and Turtles.
The hyoid is more bird-like than reptile-like.
_Ribs and vertebræ._
It is uncertain whether the Pterodactyle had lumbar vertebræ. If they
are wanting, therein the animals resemble birds, of which we are
reminded in the short and stiff back and moveable neck. Pterodactyles
possess a smaller number of neck-vertebræ and a larger number of
back-vertebræ than birds. The long neck-vertebræ are paralleled by
those of water-birds, by the Giraffe, the Camel, Protosaurus and
Tanystrophæus. There are 7 cervical vertebræ, the 1st very short, 2nd
not longer, but rather shorter than those which follow. There are in
Pterodactyles from 12 to 16 dorsal vertebræ, while birds have never
more than 11. It is not certain whether all Pterodactyles have an os
sacrum; most have it, and therein resemble Mammals, Birds, and some
fossil Saurians. In Pterodactylus dubius and P. grandipelvis and P.
Kochi there are 5 or 6 vertebræ in the sacrum. In birds the sacral
vertebræ vary from 5 to 22; in bats the number is from 5 to 6.
The short tails of Pterodactyles are more like those of mammals than
birds; they include from 10 to 15 tail-vertebræ. In birds there are
from 6 to 10 tail-vertebræ. Rhamphorhynchus has 38-40 tail-vertebræ,
secured between thread-bones like those in the tail of rats.
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