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DRAGONS OF THE AIR
[Illustration: FIG. 47. RHAMPHORHYNCHUS PHYLLUNUS
SHOWING THE PRESERVATION OF THE WING MEMBRANES
_From the Lithographic slate of Eichstaedt, Bavaria_
_Frontispiece_]
DRAGONS OF THE AIR
AN ACCOUNT OF
EXTINCT FLYING REPTILES
BY
H. G. SEELEY, F.R.S.
PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY IN KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON; LECTURER ON GEOLOGY
AND MINERALOGY IN THE ROYAL INDIAN ENGINEERING COLLEGE
WITH EIGHTY ILLUSTRATIONS
"I AM A BROTHER OF DRAGONS"
_Job_ xxx. 29
NEW YORK: D. APPLETON & CO.
LONDON: METHUEN & CO.
1901
PREFACE
I was a student of law at a time when Sir Richard Owen was lecturing on
Extinct Fossil Reptiles. The skill of the great master, who built bones
together as a child builds with a box of bricks, taught me that the laws
which determine the forms of animals were less understood at that time
than the laws which govern the relations of men in their country. The
laws of Nature promised a better return of new knowledge for reasonable
study. A lecture on Flying Reptiles determined me to attempt to fathom
the mysteries which gave new types of life to the Earth and afterwards
took them away.
Thus I became the very humble servant of the Dragons of the Air. Knowing
but little about them I went to Cambridge, and for ten years worked with
the Professor of Geology, the late Rev. Adam Sedgwick, LL.D., F.R.S., in
gathering their bones from the so-called Cambridge Coprolite bed, the
Cambridge Greensand. The bones came in thousands, battered and broken,
but instructive as better materials might not have been. My rooms
became filled with remains of existing birds, lizards, and mammals,
which threw light on the astonishing collection of old bones which I
assisted in bringing together for the University.
In time I had something to say about Flying Animals which was new. The
story was told in the theatre of the Royal Institution, in a series of
lectures. Some of them were repeated in several English towns. There was
still much to learn of foreign forms of flying animals; but at last,
with the aid of the Government grant administered by the Royal Society,
and the chiefs of the great Continental museums, I saw all the specimens
in Europe.
So I have again written out my lectures, with the aid of the latest
discoveries, and the story of animal structure has lost nothing in
interest as a twice-told tale. It still presents in epitome the story of
life on the Earth. He who understands whence the Flying Reptiles came,
how they endured, and disappeared from the Earth, has solved some of the
greatest mysteries of life. I have only contributed something towards
solving the problems.
In telling my story, chiefly of facts in Nature, an attempt is made to
show how a naturalist does his work, in the hope that perhaps a few
readers will find happiness in following the workings of the laws of
life. Such an illumination has proved to many worth seeking, a solid
return for labour, which is not to be marketed on the Exchange, but may
be taken freely without exhausting the treasury of Nature's truths. Such
outlines of knowledge as here are offered to a larger public, may also,
I believe, be acceptable to students of science and scientific men.
The drawings given in illustration of the text have been made for me by
Miss E. B. Seeley.
H. G. S.
KENSINGTON, _May, 1901_
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I.
FLYING REPTILES 1
CHAPTER II.
HOW A REPTILE IS KNOWN 4
CHAPTER III.
A REPTILE IS KNOWN BY ITS BONES 11
CHAPTER IV.
ANIMALS WHICH FLY 15
CHAPTER V.
DISCOVERY OF THE PTERODACTYLE 27
CHAPTER VI.
HOW ANIMALS ARE INTERPRETED BY THEIR BONES 37
CHAPTER VII.
INTERPRETATION OF PTERODACTYLES BY THEIR SOFT PARTS 45
CHAPTER VIII.
THE PLAN OF THE SKELETON 58
CHAPTER IX.
THE BACKBONE, OR VERTEBRAL COLUMN 78
CHAPTER X.
THE HIP-GIRDLE AND HIND LIMB 93
CHAPTER XI.
SHOULDER-GIRDLE AND FORE LIMB 107
CHAPTER XII.
EVIDENCES OF THE ANIMAL'S HABITS FROM ITS REMAINS 134
CHAPTER XIII.
ANCIENT ORNITHOSAURS FROM THE LIAS 143
CHAPTER XIV.
ORNITHOSAURS FROM THE MIDDLE SECONDARY ROCKS 153
CHAPTER XV.
ORNITHOSAURS FROM THE UPPER SECONDARY ROCKS 172
CHAPTER XVI.
CLASSIFICATION OF THE ORNITHOSAURIA 187
CHAPTER XVII.
FAMILY RELATIONS OF PTERODACTYLES TO ANIMALS WHICH LIVED WITH THEM 196
CHAPTER XVIII.
HOW PTERODACTYLES MAY HAVE ORIGINATED 213
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
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.