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)
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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
No. 1 shows a well-marked pit for the ligamentum teres at the back part
of the ball. At the proximal end of the shaft below the neck is a large
pit for the obturator muscle, and at the outer front angle a great
trochanter. Proximally the bone can only be compared with the mammalian
Carnivora, Quadrumana and Man; distally it is avian and mammalian.
In one genus exemplified by specimens 5-10 the obturator pit is not
developed.
Sometimes the shaft is curved a little convexly, outward and forward.
TIBIA.
Pl. 8.
Case. Comp. Tablet. Specimen.
=J= _b_ 12 1-11
Eleven specimens are mounted to illustrate the tibia, of which 1 to
9 are regarded as proximal ends; and 10, 11 with less confidence are
regarded as distal ends from which the distal epiphysis has come
away. It is to be anticipated that the distal end of the tibia in
Pterodactyle will when found approximate to the distal end of the tibia
in the bird.
The bone is at the proximal end straight and sub-cylindrical, slowly
enlarging proximally; convex behind, except for an elevated boss some
little way below the proximal articulation for the attachment of
powerful muscles. In front the shaft is a little flattened proximally,
with a mesial groove dividing two prominences which are apparently
homologous with the ridges below the patella in birds. The proximal
articular surface truncates the shaft at right angles except at what
is regarded as the outer front aspect, where it rises into a small
patelloid prominence.
It shows the impressions of two condyles, which correspond in form with
the distal end of the Femur.
Nos. 3 and 6 are regarded as left tibia; Nos. 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 as examples
of right tibia.
No specimen likely to be a fibula has been found. In Dimorphodon and
in German Genera the fibula is Avian in form. The Crocodile offers
some approximation to the Pterodactyle shape in the proximal end of
the Tibia, but the Pterodactyle has Avian characters in addition. Its
straightness and length, ridges on the front and patelloid prominence,
are Avian.
TARSUS OR TARSO-METATARSUS.
Pl. 8.
Case. Comp. Tablet. Specimen.
=J= _b_ 13 1
This fragment, which may be the distal end of the bone corresponding
to that called in birds the tarsus or tarso-metatarsus, is badly
preserved. Yet so close is its resemblance in form, structure, and
apposition of the constituent bones to what obtains among birds,
that it may probably be identified as the tarsus; while the peculiar
characteristics of Pterodactyle bones which it shows, demonstrate that
it is not from a bird, but from an Ornithosaurian skeleton.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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