Diagram showing the Relations of the Ornithomorpha to the chief large groups of Terrestrial Vertebrata,
and their affinities with each other.
After a diagram in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 1892.
Cordylomorpha are Ichthyosaurs and the Labyrinthodont group. Herpetomorpha include Lacertilia, Homœosauria, Dolichosauria, Chameleonoidea, Ophidia, Pythonomorpha.
The Sauromorpha comprises the groups of extinct and living Reptiles named Chelonia, Rhynchocephala, Sauropterygia, Anomodontia, Nothosauria, and Protorosauria. These details may help to explain the place which has been given to the Ornithosauria in the classification of animals.
FIG. 75. COMPARISON OF SIX GENERA
The skulls are seen on the left side in the order of the names below them
Turning to the Pterodactyles themselves, Von Meyer divided them naturally into short-tailed and long-tailed. The short-tailed indicated by the name Pterodactylus he further divided into long-nosed and short-nosed. The short-nosed genus has since been named Ptenodracon ([Fig. 59, p. 167]). The long-tailed group was divided into two types—the Rhamphorhynchus of the Solenhofen Slate ([Fig. 56, p. 161]) and the English form now known as Dimorphodon ([Fig. 52, p. 150]), which had been described from the Lias.