This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1915 Excerpt: ...and compact wall of bone in the limb bones, which, however, might have been occupied by unossified cartilage, as in the young crocodile and turtle; but if they were filled with oil or light marrow, it would point to a course of development towards Pterodactyles or Birds. This phrase is purely hypothetical, and I mean ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1915 Excerpt: ...and compact wall of bone in the limb bones, which, however, might have been occupied by unossified cartilage, as in the young crocodile and turtle; but if they were filled with oil or light marrow, it would point to a course of development towards Pterodactyles or Birds. This phrase is purely hypothetical, and I mean to express no more than a degree of resemblance, supposing marrow and not gristle to have filled the large cavities.' "The most important characteristics of these fossils so far as determining the genus is concerned, are in the bones of the right foot, which are tolerably well preserved, and a drawing of which--of the natural size, in Plate ix, fig. 6--has been made by my sister, Miss Emily Hitchcock. From this drawing it will be seen that the prominent character of the foot is the robustness of the pollex. Hence Professor Owen suggests the generic name Megadactylus. The only other terminal phalanx of this extremity, is found on the fourth toe. And it might possibly seem that there were no claws on any toe but the first one, were it not that among the fragments of the skeleton, another claw is preserved which is only about one-fourth the size of the one figured on the Plate. "When the specimens were shown to Professors Owen and Wyman, it was thought that the foot was only four-toed, as a portion of the phalanges was covered by fragments of the rock. But close and careful work with the graver has uncovered the first and third phalanges of the fourth toe, seeming to show that the single phalanx on the right must have belonged to a fifth toe. Its greater size, also, shows that it could not have belonged to the fourth finger. "In addition to the three phalanges of the fourth toe, a small bony knob was found, seeming to represent a fo...
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