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 proximal end has never been figured. Prof. Owen's figure pl. IV.
fig, 4-5, First Supt. Cret. Rep. is probably part of a jaw, and not
the wing-metacarpal. The articular surface is oblong with one corner
rounded off so that the adjacent long and short sides become confluent
on the exterior surface of the bone.
In the middle of the flat inside margin and extending proximally is
a semi-cylindrical process, which is prolonged a short distance down
the side of the bone as an elevated ridge. On the flattened articular
end this process is bordered by a semicircular furrow which extends
half-way across the bone, outside of which is a slightly convex
semicircular band which extends to the outer margin of the bone,
except towards the short side opposite to that one which rounds into
the outer side, where there appears to be a narrow unarticular area.
On the inside of the bone where the two ends of the semicircular
proximal furrow terminate are two deep grooves which extend a short
distance distally; they are both limited by inward extensions of the
short sides of the bone, that crest being most developed in height and
length which is toward the flattened short side. The outline which
these modifications give to the inner side of the proximal surface
is intermediate in form between the letters S and [sideways M].
The Distal End.
The distal end has been figured by Prof. Owen in the British Fossil
Mammals, p. 545; in Dixon's Geology of Sussex, Pl. XXIX. fig. 12; Cret.
Reptiles, Pl. XXXII. figs. 4 and 5, First Supt. Pl. IV, fig. 9-11, and
other places, and fully described. It closely resembles the distal end
of a bird's tibia; and consists of a pulley-shaped end set obliquely
on to the compressed shaft, which just above the junction is reniform
in section, owing to the development of _a median rounded ridge_ on
the same inner side of the bone which bears the median ridge at the
proximal end, while on the opposite side there is a corresponding
_median depression_ which does not extend far proximally. In this
depression is an oval pneumatic foramen; on the right of the median
ridge of the other side, but placed more distally, is another pneumatic
foramen. The median ridge has sometimes a slight furrow on each side.
It terminates proximally in strong muscular insertions, which extend
round the right side of the bone; and distally, becoming more elevated
and rounded, it curves obliquely to the rights and forming one of the
sides of the pulley, passes round the base as three quarters of a
spiral, the termination extending laterally beyond the shaft. On this
side of the bone, distal to the median depression, arises another ridge
strong and well rounded, which is directed to the right, similarly
passes round the base as a spiral, and forms the other side of the
pulley. It is not so prominent as the border previously described.
While the spirals approximate at their origin, they become widely
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