This English genus Ornithocheirus, represented by a great number of species, had the neural arch of the neck bones expanded transversely over the body of the vertebra in a way that characterises many birds with powerful necks, and is seen in a few Pterodactyles from Solenhofen.
It is difficult to resist the conclusion that the neck vertebræ were not usually more than twice to three times as long as those of the back, and it would appear that the caudal vertebræ in the English Cretaceous types were comparatively large, and about twice as long as the dorsal vertebræ. Unless there has been a singular succession of accidents in the association of these vertebræ with the other remains, Ornithocheirus had a tail of moderate length, formed of a few vertebræ as long as those of the neck, though more slender, quite unlike the tail in either the long-tailed or short-tailed groups of Solenhofen Pterodactyles, and longer than in the toothless Pterodactyles of America.
FIG. 70. CERVICAL VERTEBRA, ORNITHOCHEIRUS
Under side, half natural size. (Cambridge Greensand)
The singular articulation for the humerus at the truncated extremity of the coracoid bone is a character of this group, as is the articulation of the scapulæ with the neural arches of the dorsal vertebræ, at right angles to them ([p. 115]), instead of running over the ribs as in Birds and as in other Pterodactyles.
The smaller Pterodactyles have their jaws less compressed from side to side. The upper arm bone, the humerus, instead of being truncated at its lower end as in Ornithocheirus, is divided into two or three rounded articular surfaces. That for the radius, the bone which carries the wrist, is a distinct and oblique rounded facet, while the ulna has a rounded and pulley-like articulation on which the hand may rotate. These differences are probably associated with an absence of the remarkable mode of union of the scapulæ with the dorsal vertebræ. But I have hesitated to give different names to these smaller genera because no example of scapula has come under my notice which is not truncated at the free end. I do not think this European type can be the Nyctodactylus of Professor Marsh, in which sutures appear to be persistent between the bodies of the vertebræ and their arches, because no examples have been found at Cambridge with the neural arches separated, although the scapula is frequently separated from the coracoid in large animals.
FIG. 71. UPPER AND LOWER JAWS OF AN ENGLISH PTERODACTYLE FROM THE CHALK, AS PRESERVED
FIG. 72. THE PALATE OF THE ENGLISH TOOTHLESS PTERODACTYLE, ORNITHOSTOMA