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 first three teeth are usually larger than those which are
placed behind them, in this respect rather resembling some fossil
reptiles than Dolphins, and presenting a character like that seen
in the Dimorphodon. They are placed in oblique oval sockets. They
have a single fang like Cetaceans, Edentates, Reptiles, and like
the premaxillary teeth of Mammals. Cambridge specimens of jaws are
not sufficiently perfect to show whether the teeth are limited
to the premaxillary bone; but this appears to be the case in
_Pterodactylus crassirostris_ (Goldf.), and probably in _Ornithocheirus
compressirostris_ (Owen), [_Palæontographical Society_, 1851, Pl. 27],
and is so regarded by Professor Owen in his later writings. Yet the
significance of this fact seems to have been forgotten, and Cuvier's
dictum about their teeth still has influence. He says, "The teeth, by
which the examination of an animal ought always to be commenced, here
present nothing equivocal. They are all simple, conical, and nearly
alike, as in the crocodiles, monitors, and other lizards." But, on the
one hand, the Dolphins demonstrate that a mammal might have similar
teeth even in the maxillary bone; and, on the other hand, since teeth
in the premaxillary bone always are single-fanged, and commonly have
a simple sub-conical crown, there is absolutely no evidence in the
teeth of the affinities of the animal, which, so far as this portion
of its economy went, might as well have been a fish or a mammal as
anything else. In the succession there is nothing very distinctive.
In the Crocodile one tooth comes up under another, as is commonly
the case with mammals; and in mammals the fangs of the old teeth are
often partially absorbed so that the teeth drop out into the mouth. In
the Pterodactyle the new teeth came up on the inner side, as in the
Ichthyosauria--a tribe of animals as singular in their affinities as
the Ornithosauria. Occasionally specimens show a small furrow on the
inner side of the fang, indicating absorption, but there is nothing
to show how many times the teeth were renewed: in the Dolphins there
is but one set, and in Crocodiles the teeth are replaced many times.
In form and size the teeth are very variable. They are directed
obliquely forward, and are curved backward and inward. They taper
in an elongate cone, compressed from side to side, flattened on the
outside, moderately convex on the inside; rarely the sides meet in a
ridge after the plan of Pliosaurus, Megalosaurus, Dakosaurus, &c.;
more frequently the lateral margins round into each other. Usually
the enamel is quite smooth, sometimes, as in No. 1, it is finely
striated and wrinkled. Some teeth are nearly circular and some quite
straight. The ovate fang contracts below, conically, and is closed,
leaving a long hollow pulp-cavity in its interior. Nos. 9, 10 show the
marks of the successional teeth on their inner sides. No. 11 appears
to have had the crown slightly worn at the tip during the animal's
lifetime.
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