Dragons of the Air: an Account of Extinct Flying Reptiles

Appendix 231

INDEX 233

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FIG. PAGE 47. Wings of Rhamphorhynchus Frontispiece 1. Lung of the lung-fish Ceratodus 5 2. Attachment of the lower jaw in a Mammal and in a Pterodactyle 12 3. Chaldaean Dragon 15 4. Winged human figure from the Temple of Ephesus 16 5. Flying fish Exocoetus 18 6. Flying Frog 19 7. Flying Lizard (Draco) 20 8. Birds in flight 22 9. Flying Squirrel (Pteromys) 24 10. Bats, flying and walking 25 11. Skeleton of Pterodactylus longirostris 28 12. The skeleton restored 29 13. The animal form restored 30 14. Fore limbs in four types of mammals 38 15. Pneumatic foramen in Pterodactyle bone 46 16. Lungs of the bird Apteryx 48 17. Air cells in the body of an Ostrich 49 18. Lung of a Chameleon 51 19. Brain in Pterodactyle, Mammal, Bird, and Reptiles 53 20. Skull of Kingfisher and Rhamphorhynchus 63 21. Skull of Heron and Rhamphorhynchus 65 22. Palate of Macrocercus and ? Campylognathus 71 23. Lower jaw of Echidna and Ornithostoma 76 24. First two neck vertebrae of Ornithocheirus 81 25. Middle neck vertebrae of Ornithocheirus 83 26. Back vertebra of Ornithocheirus and Crocodile 86 27. Sacrum, with hip bones, of Rhamphorhynchus 88 28. Extremity of tail of Rhamphorhynchus phyllurus 91 29. Hip-girdle bones in Apteryx and Rhamphorhynchus 95 30. Pelvis with prepubic bone in Pterodactylus 96 31. Pelvis with prepubic bones in Rhamphorhynchus 97 32. Pelvis of an Alligator seen from below 98 33. Femora: Echidna, Ornithocheirus, Ursus 100 34. Tibia and fibula: Dimorphodon and Vulture 102 35. Metatarsus and digits in three Pterodactyles 104 36. Sternum in Cormorant and Rhamphorhynchus 108 37. Sternum in Ornithocheirus 109 38. Shoulder-girdle bones in a bird and three Pterodactyles 113 39. The Notarium from the back of Ornithocheirus 115 40. The shoulder-girdle of Ornithocheirus 115 41. Humerus of Pigeon and Ornithocheirus 119 42. Fore-arm of Golden Eagle and Dimorphodon 120 43. Wrist bones of Ornithocheirus 124 44. Clawed digits of the hand in two Pterodactyles 125 45. Claw from the hand of Ornithocheirus 129 46. The hand in Archaeopteryx and the Ostrich 130 48. Slab of Lias with bones of Dimorphodon To face page 143 49. Dimorphodon (restored form) at rest 144 50. Dimorphodon (restored form of the animal) To face page 145 51. Dimorphodon skeleton, walking as a quadruped " " 146 52. Dimorphodon skeleton as a biped " " 147 53. Lower jaw of Dorygnathus 149 54. Dimorphodon (wing membranes spread for flight) To face page 150 55. Pelvis of Dimorphodon 151 56. Rhamphorhynchus skeleton (restored) 161 57. Scaphognathus (restoration of 1875) 163 58. Six restorations of Ornithosaurs 164 59. Ptenodracon skeleton (restored) 167 60. Cycnorhamphus suevicus slab with bones To face page 168 61. Cycnorhamphus suevicus (form of the animal) To face page 169 62. Cycnorhamphus suevicus skeleton (restored) 170 63. Cycnorhamphus Fraasi (restored skeleton form of the animal) To face page 170 64. Cycnorhamphus Fraasi (restoration of the form of the body) To face page 171 65. Neck vertebra of Doratorhynchus from the Purbeck 173 66. Neck bone of Ornithodesmus from the Wealden 173 67. Sternum of Ornithodesmus, seen from the front 175 68. Sternum of Ornithodesmus, side view, showing the keel 175 69. Diagram of known parts of skull of Ornithocheirus 177 70. Neck bone of Ornithocheirus 179 71. Jaws of Ornithocheirus from the Chalk 180 72. Palate of the English Toothless Pterodactyle 181 73. Two views of the skull of Ornithostoma (Pteranodon) 182 74. Skeleton of Ornithostoma 183 75. Comparison of six skulls of Ornithosaurs 192 76. Pelvis of Ornithostoma 195 77. Skull of Anchisaurus and Dimorphodon 199 78. Skull of Ornithosuchus and Dimorphodon 201 79. The pelvis in Ornithosaur and Dinosaur 204 80. The prepubic bones in Dimorphodon and Iguanodon 206

These figures are greatly reduced in size, and when two or more bones are shown in the same figure all are brought to the same size to facilitate the comparison.

DRAGONS OF THE AIR

CHAPTER I. Flying Reptiles

FLYING REPTILES

The history of life on the earth during the epochs of geological time unfolds no more wonderful discovery among types of animals which have become extinct than the family of fossils known as flying reptiles. Its coming into existence, its structure, and passing away from the living world are among the great mysteries of Nature.

The animals are astonishing in their plan of construction. In aspect they are unlike birds and beasts which, in this age, hover over land and sea. They gather into themselves in the body of a single individual, structures which, at the present day, are among the most distinctive characters of certain mammals, birds, and reptiles.

The name "flying reptile" expresses this anomaly. Its invention is due to the genius of the great French naturalist Cuvier, who was the first to realise that this extinct animal, entombed in slabs of stone, is one of the wonders of the world.

The word "reptile" has impressed the imagination with unpleasant sound, even when the habits of the animals it indicates are unknown. It is familiarly associated with life which is reputed venomous, and is creeping and cold. Its common type, the serpent, in many parts of the world takes a yearly toll of victims from man and beast, and has become the representative of silent, active strength, dreaded craft, and danger.

Science uses the word "reptile" in a more exact way, to define the assemblage of cold-blooded animals which in familiar description are separately named serpents, lizards, turtles, hatteria, and crocodiles.

Turtles and the rest of them survive from great geological antiquity. They present from age to age diversity of aspect and habit, and in unexpected differences of outward proportion of the body show how the laws of life have preserved each animal type. For the vital organs which constitute each animal a reptile, and the distinctive bony structures with which they are associated, remain unaffected, or but little modified, by the animal's external change in appearance.

The creeping reptile is commonly imagined as the antithesis of the bird. For the bird overcomes the forces that hold even man to the earth, and enjoys exalted aerial conditions of life. Therefore the marvel is shared equally by learned and unlearned, that the power of flight should have been an endowment of animals sprung from the breed of serpents, or crocodiles, enabling them to move through the air as though they too were of a heaven-born race. The wonder would not be lessened if the animal were a degraded representative of a nobler type, or if it should be demonstrated that even beasts have advanced in the battle of life. The winged reptile, when compared with a bird, is not less astounding than the poetic conceptions in Milton's Paradise Lost of degradation which overtakes life that once was amongst the highest. And on the other hand, from the point of view of the teaching of Darwin in the theories of modern science, we are led to ask whether a flying reptile may not be evidence of the physical exaltation which raises animals in the scale of organisation. The dominance upon the earth of flying reptiles during the great middle period of geological history will long engage the interest of those who can realise the complexity of its structure, or care to unravel the meaning of the procession of animal forms in successive geological ages which preceded the coming of man.

The outer vesture of an animal counts for little in estimating the value of ties which bind orders of animals together, which are included in the larger classes of life. The kindred relationship which makes the snake of the same class as the tortoise is determined by the soft vital organs--brain, heart, lungs--which are the essentials of an animal's existence and control its way of life. The wonder which science weaves into the meaning of the word "reptile," "bird," or "mammal," is partly in exhibiting minor changes of character in those organs and other soft parts, but far more in showing that while they endure unchanged, the hard parts of the skeleton are modified in many ways. For the bones of the reptile orders stretch their affinities in one direction towards the skeletons of salamanders and fishes; and extend them also at the same time in other directions, towards birds and mammals. This mystery we may hope to partly unravel.

CHAPTER II. How a Reptile Is Known

HOW A REPTILE IS KNOWN

DEFINITION OF REPTILES BY THEIR VITAL ORGANS

The relations of reptiles to other animals may be stated so as to make evident the characters and affinities which bind them together. Early in the nineteenth century naturalists included with the Reptilia the tribe of salamanders and frogs which are named Amphibia. The two groups have been separated from each other because the young of Amphibia pass through a tadpole stage of development. They then breathe by gills, like fishes, taking oxygen from the air which is suspended in water, before lungs are acquired which afterwards enable the animals to take oxygen directly from the air. The amphibian sometimes sheds the gills, and leaves the water to live on land. Sometimes gills and lungs are retained through life in the same individual. This amphibian condition of lung and gill being present at the same time is paralleled by a few fishes which still exist, like the Australian Ceratodus, the lung-fish, an ancient type of fish which belongs to early days in geological time.

Continue reading Dragons of the Air: an Account of Extinct Flying Reptiles free in the Wunder reader →