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Flying Reptiles: Pterodactyls

And just as Pterodactyls played the part of birds as regards flight, so they seem like the birds to have been creatures of varying size and diverse habits.

There were pterodactyls as big as an albatross and that, like the albatross, sailed majestically over the sea; others, no bigger than a sparrow, fluttered¹ merrily over the land in pursuit of insects: there were pterodactyls with long tails, pterodactyls with short tails and pterodactyls with no tails at all; and while some flew by day, others, to judge from the size of their eyes, anticipated the owls and flew by night.

As to the covering of pterodactyls, the evidence and balance of opinion is that unlike most reptiles, they were This has been questioned, owing to the peculiar structure of the wing and it is possible that even the small pterodactyls sailed like our swallows.

THE GREAT PTERODACTYL PTERANODON Drawn under the Direction of Professor Langley CYCNORHAMPHUS A small, no-tailed Pterodactyl Drawn by Miss E. B. Seeley. From Seeley's "Dragons of the Air" By permission of Methuen and Co. naked and quite smooth. The appearance of some specimens suggested that the wings were covered with small scales or undeveloped feathers but closer examination showed that these were only fine wrinkles. Extraordinary creatures they were and most uncanny they must have seemed flitting through the air at night- THE GREAT PTERODACTYL PTERANODON Compared with a Condor fall in pursuit of insects on which it seems probable that the smaller species fed.

For reasons unknown they were either sparsely represented in North America during the Jurassic period or their favorite cemetery has not come to light: at any rate scarcely any examples have been found and those in fragmentary condition.