Fig. 48.—Skeleton and Impressions of the Features of the Lizard-tailed Bird (Archæopteryx macrura), from the Upper Jurassic (Lithographic Stone) of Solenhofen, Bavaria. About ¼th natural size.
Fig. 49.—Skeleton of the Iguanodon (Iguanodon bernissartensis), a Biped Dinosaur from the Wealden of Belgium. About 1/80th natural size.
Extinct Reptiles.
The long corridor north of the fossil Mammal-gallery contains a fine assemblage of Reptilian remains. The south side is devoted to the Great Sea-Lizards (Sauropterygia and Ichthyopterygia), mostly from the Lias formation. The skeleton of an Ichthyosaur from the Lias is shown in [fig. 50]. Skeletons of Plesiosaurians and Pliosaurians from the Oxford Clay are mounted in central cases. Ranged in the cases on the north side are remains of the gigantic Dinosaurs, which vastly exceeded in size any other land-animals. A mounted plaster cast of a complete skeleton of the Iguanodon ([fig. 49]), found (with many others) in the Wealden strata at Bernissart in Belgium, is exhibited in the gallery of recent Reptiles; but a large series of bones of the same reptile is shown here.
Fig. 50.—Skeleton of an Ichthyosaur (Ichthyosaurus tenuirostris). From the Lias of Somersetshire. About 1/10th natural size.
In the centre of this gallery is placed a large portion of the skeleton of a gigantic Dinosaur (Cetiosaurus leedsi) from the Upper Jurassic Oxford Clay near Peterborough. It is nearly allied to the North American Diplodocus, of which, as mentioned on page 57, the model of a complete skeleton is exhibited in the recent Reptile Gallery. Both Cetiosaurus and Diplodocus resemble Brontosaurus ([fig. 51]) in the extremely small size of the skull. Another central case contains an actual skull and other remains of the American Cretaceous horned Dinosaur Triceratops (see [page 57]), and in wall-case 8 is placed a plaster cast of the skull of the contemporary Tyrannosaurus, the largest known carnivorous Dinosaur.
At the eastern end of the gallery are the Pterosauria or Ornithosauria, commonly called Pterodactyles or Flying Reptiles. Their most gigantic representatives were the species of Pteranodon from the Upper Cretaceous of Kansas ([fig. 53]). At the west end is the nearly complete skeleton of Pariasaurus ([fig. 52]) from the Karoo formation (Trias) of South Africa. It occurs also in Russia, and belongs to a primitive section of the Theromorphs, or Anomodonts, which include the ancestors of Mammals.