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 ossa innominata have been determined as right and left on the
supposition that the pelvis of the Dimorphodon is in situ, and from the
general correspondence of the form of the constituent elements with
elements of the pelvis in the lower mammals, reptiles, and birds.
Each os innominatum shows a hemispherical acetabulum which is slightly
elongated in antero-posterior extent In the Dimorphodon the bone which
is superior to the cup, that is to say, which extends dorsally along
the sacral vertebræ is prolonged anteriorly as a strong narrow straight
style, the base of which is seen in the parts marked _Ilium_ in Nos.
1 and 6. A more perfect example may be studied in a pelvis from the
Cambridge Greensand preserved in the collection of the Geological
survey. Posterior to the acetabulum a similar but stronger bony style
extends for more than the length of the acetabulum, curving slightly
downward at its posterior part. The dorsal outline of this portion of
the bone is slightly concave. The posterior horn like the anterior
horn forms part of the ilium which constitutes the upper half of the
acetabular cup. The os innominatum contracts in antero-posterior
extent below the acetabulum, and immediately widens again in a thin
concave bony expansion. The anterior or pubic outline is comparatively
straight, and at right angles with the ilium; the posterior or ischiac
outline is deeply cupped where the ischium unites with the ilium, and
becoming straight extends backward at a considerable angle. The ischium
contributes less to the pelvic cup than either the ilium or pubis;
it is flat in front and convex on the visceral side, rounding into
the narrow flattened posterior side. The pubis is separated from the
ischium by a suture extending vertically through the obturator foramen.
The obturator foramen [seen in No. 9] is small and oval, less than half
the diameter of the acetabulum, situated below its ventral border. It
passes obliquely downward and a little forward, and its opening makes
the exterior aspect of the pubis concave; the visceral aspect of the
pubis is convex from side to side like the ischium. The sacral aspect
of so much of the os innominatum as is seen, is concave from the dorsal
to the ventral margins, and is cupped behind and below the acetabulum,
the surface being rough. Among reptiles the ilium is chiefly behind
the acetabulum, in mammals it is chiefly in front. In the over-lapping
group, Aves, it extends both ways. Among the Amphibia the ilium is
chiefly anterior to the acetabulum. In Crocodiles it has a slight
extension both ways, in Dinosaurs the extensions are more marked and
the whole arrangement approximates to birds. But among animals which
have been affiliated with reptiles the Dicynodonts are the only order
in which there is a pelvis so mammalian and massive. If the ilium of
the Monotreme genus Echidna had a posterior extension, the pelvis would
be altogether comparable with the pelvis of this Pterodactyle, and
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