RAMPHORHYNCHUS, Von Meyer.—In this genus the fore part of each jaw is without teeth, and may have been encased by a horny beak, but behind the edentulous pro duction there are four or five large and long teeth, fol lowed by several smaller ones. The tail is long, stiff, and slender.
The Ramphorhynch,us longicauclus, R. Gemmingi, and R. Mgnsteri belong to this genus. All are from the lithographic (middle oolitic) slates of Bavaria.
Genus PTERODACTYLUS, Cuv.—The jaws are provided with teeth to their extremities ; all the teeth are long, slender sharp-pointed, set well apart. The tail is very short.
P. longirostris, Ok.—About 10 inches in length ; from lithographic slate at Pappenheim. P. crctssirostris, Goldf.— About 1 foot long ; same locality (fig. 74). P. Kochii, Wagn. —8 inches long ; from the lithographic slates of Kehlheim. P. medius, Mnst.-10 inches long ; from the lithographic slates at Meulenhard. P. grandis, Cuv.-14 inches long ; from lithographic slates of Solenhofen. Two small and probably immature Pterodactyles, showing the short jaws characteristic of such immaturity, have been entered as species under the names of P. brevirostris and P. .Meyeri. The latter shows the circle of sclerotic eye-plates.
The fragmentary remains of Pterodactyle from British oolite—e. g., Stonesfield slate, usually entered as Pterodactylus Bucklancli —indicate a species about the size of a raven.
The evidences of Pterodactyles from the Wealden strata indicate species about 16 inches in length of body. Those (P. Fittoni and P. Sedgzoickii, Ow.) from the greensand forma tion, near Cambridge, with neck-vertebrae 2 inches long, and humeri measuring 3 inches across the proximal joint, had a probable expanse of wing of from 18 to 20 feet. The P.
Curieri, Ow., and P. compressirostri.s, Ow., from the chalk of Kent, attained dimensions very little inferior to those of the greensand Pterodactyles.
More evidence is yet needed for the establishment of the pterosaurian genus, on the alleged character of but two phalanges in the wing-finger, and for which the term " Orni thopterus" has been proposed by Von Meyer.
With regard to the range of this remarkable order of flying reptiles in geological time, the present evidence is as follows : The oldest well-known Pterodactyle is the Dimorphoclon macro nyx, of the lower lias ; but bones of Pterodactyle have been discovered in the coeval liaa of Wirtemberg. The next in point of age is the Dinwrp/wdon Banthensis, from the "Posidonomyen schiefer" of Banz in Bavaria, answering to the alum shale of the Whitby lias ; then follows the P. Bucklandi from the Stonesfield oolite. Above this come the first-defined and numerous species of Pterodactyle from the lithographic slates of the middle oolitic system in Germany, and from Cirin, on the Rhone. The Pterodactyles of the Wealden are as yet known to us by only a few bones and bone fragments. The largest known species are those from the upper greensand of Cambridgeshire. Finally, the Pterodactyles of the middle chalk of Kent, almost as remarkable for their great size, con stitute the last forms of flying reptile known in the history of the crust of this earth.