The Pterodactyles from the Lias of Germany are similar to the English types, in so far as they can be compared. In 1878 I had the opportunity of studying those which were preserved in the Castle at Banz, which Professor Andreas Wagner, in 1860, referred to the new genus Dorygnathus. The skull is unknown, but the lower jaw, 6½ inches long, is less than 2½ inches wide at the articulation with the quadrate bone in the skull. The depth of the lower jaw does not exceed ¼ inch, so that it is in marked contrast to Buckland's Dimorphodon. The symphysis, which completely blends the rami of the jaw, is short. As far as it extends it contains large tearing teeth, followed by smaller teeth behind, like those of Dimorphodon. But this German fossil appears to differ from the English type in having the front of the lower jaw, for about ¾ inch, compressed from side to side into a sharp blade or spear, more marked than in any other Pterodactyle, and directed upward instead of downward as in Dimorphodon. Nearly all the measurements in the skeleton are practically identical with those of the English Dimorphodon, and extend to the jaw, humerus, ulna and radius, wing metacarpal, first phalange of the wing finger. The principal bones of the hind limb appear to be a little shorter; but the scapula and coracoid are slightly larger. All these bones are so similar in form to Dimorphodon that they could not be separated from the Lyme Regis species, if they were found in the same locality.
FIG. 53. LOWER JAW OF DORYGNATHUS SEEN FROM BELOW
From the Lower Lias of Germany, showing the spear in front of the tooth sockets
Just as the Upper Lias in England has yielded a second Pterodactyle, so the Upper Lias in Germany has yielded a skeleton, to which Felix Plieninger, in 1894, gave the name Campylognathus. It is an instructive skeleton, with the head much smaller than in Dimorphodon, being less than 6 inches long, but, unfortunately, broken and disturbed. A lower jaw gives the length 4½ inches. Like the other Pterodactyles from the Lias, it has the extremity of the beak toothless, with larger teeth in the region of the symphysis in front and smaller teeth behind. The jaw is deeper than in the Banz specimen from the Lower Lias, but not so deep as in Dimorphodon. The teeth of the upper jaw vary in size, and there appears to be an exceptionally large tooth in the position of the Mammalian canine at the junction of the bones named maxillary and intermaxillary.
The nasal opening is small and elongated, as in the English specimen from Whitby. As in that type there is little or no indication of the convex contour of the face seen in Dimorphodon.
The neck does not appear to be preserved. In the back the vertebræ are about 3/10 inch long, so that twelve, which is the usual number, would only occupy a length of a little more than 3½ inches. The tail is elongated like that of Dimorphodon, and bordered in the same way by ossified ligaments. There are thirty-five tail vertebræ. Those which immediately follow the pelvis are short, like the vertebræ of the back. But they soon elongate, and reach a maximum length of nearly 1½ inches at the eighth, and then gradually diminish till the last scarcely exceeds 1/8 inch in length. The length of the tail is about 22 inches; this appears to be an inch or two longer than in Dimorphodon. The longest rib measures 2½ inches, and the shortest 2 inches. These ribs probably were connected with the sternum, which is imperfectly preserved.
FIG. 54. DIMORPHODON MACRONYX
SHOWING THE MAXIMUM SPREAD OF THE WING MEMBRANES
The bones of the limbs have about the same length as those of Dimorphodon, so far as they can be compared, except that the ulna and radius are shorter. The wing metacarpal is of about the same length, but the first phalange of the wing finger measures 6¼ inches, the second is about 8¼ inches, the third 6½ inches, and the fourth 4¾ inches; so that the total length of the wing finger was about half an inch short of 2 feet. One character especially deserves attention in the apparent successive elongation of the first three phalanges in the wing finger in Dimorphodon. The third phalange is the longest in the only specimen in which the finger bones are all preserved. Usually the first phalange is much longer than the second, so that it is a further point of interest to find that this German type shares with Dimorphodon a character of the wing finger which distinguishes both from some members of the group by its short first phalange.