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 best preserved of the 10 specimens here exhibited is 3 inches long,
No. 2. The shaft is oval, flattened on one side; measuring at an inch
from the fractured end 7/10ths of an inch in the least diameter, and
one inch in the wide diameter. It widens distally at first slowly,
then rapidly, till at the articular end its greatest width is two
inches. But while expanding laterally it contracts from side to side,
the more convex side of the two at about an inch from the articular
end, beginning to approximate to the flatter side till the articular
end has a short diameter of less than half an inch.
On the left-hand corner of the convex inner side of the bone is an
elevated flattened disc for muscular attachments, fully half an inch
in diameter, there is a slight muscular attachment interior to this,
nearer the middle of the bone. The left-hand corner of the flattened
outer side of the distal end of the radius is marked by a vertical
ridge bordering a similarly elevated oval muscular attachment. Parallel
to this nearer the middle of the side is a much stronger and acutely
elevated ridge.
The articulation is made up of three distinct parts, all in a straight
line. The portion of bone adjacent to the large muscular disc is
compressed and rounded on the distal end; then first there is a rather
deep circular cup 3/8ths of an inch wide, nearer to the more convex
than to the flatter side of the bone; adjacent to this cup is a convex
ball of about the same size; while the remainder of the articulation
is concave in length, convex from side to side, and looks downward and
a little towards the inner convex side of the bone. The specimens are
arranged so as to display these characters.--The example described is
of nearly the same size as that figured for the humerus in fig. 1, T.
XXIV. of the Cretaceous Reptilia. The less well preserved bone in that
figure exhibits the Ulna in its true position behind the Radius.
III. Proximal End of Ulna.
This bone has much the proportions of the Ulna in birds, the smaller
specimens nearly resembling the ulna of the Heron. The specimen (No.
1) with the shaft best preserved is 2-1/4 inches long, cylindrical at
the fracture, where it measures in diameter 3/16ths of an inch. It
gradually enlarges proximally widening to about 7/10ths of an inch;
near the proximal end it is a little curved, the side which is concave
in length being a little flattened, while there is a lateral elevation
on the opposite side, apparently corresponding to the quill-ridge on
the convex side of the bird-ulna. There is a separate ossification for
the olecranon, which is an irregular sub-oblong bone forming the outer
part of the articulation; it is only preserved in No. 1. Nos. 4, 5 and
6 show the concave transverse groove from which it has come away.
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