Pterodactyl

Pterodactyl, the general name applied to all the winged reptiles of the Secondary rocks. Fourteen genera, including 86 species, are now recognised, varying in size from that of a sparrow to that of an albatross. They had in most cases teeth, but sometimes also a horny beak; a. more or less elongated lizard-like tail; and an enormously elongated outer digit or wing-finger to the forelimbs. This supported an expansion of the integument, resembling that in the bats, which may have extended to the hind-limbs and tail. There is no probability of their having had feathers. The pterodactyls range in geological time from the Trias to the Upper Chalk. Many large forms have been found in the Cretaceous rocks of Kansas; but the longest-known and best-preserved are from the Solenhofen lithographic stone of Bavaria, Kiineridgian in age.