Nyctosaurus Marsh, Amer. Journ. Sci. xii, p. 480, Dec. 1876. (nomen preoc.[1]).
Nyctodactylus Marsh, Amer. Journ. Sci. xxi, p. 343, April 1881: ibid. xxvii, p. 423, May 1884.
Nyctodactylus gracilis.
Pteranodon gracilis Marsh, Amer. Journ. Sci. xi, p. 508, June 1876.
Nyctosaurus gracilis Marsh, Amer. Journ. Sci. xii, p. 480, Dec. 1876.
Nyctodactylus gracilis Marsh, Amer. Jour. Sci. xxi, p. 343, April 1881.
PTERANODON.
Skull.
Fragmentary portions of the skull of Pteranodon are not at all rare in the Kansas chalk; but it is exceedingly seldom that a complete, or even approximately complete specimen is found. Their great length and slenderness, together with the extensive pneumaticity of the bones, render their preservation, as a whole, a thing of great rarity. Probably the most nearly perfect one yet known is now in the Museum of Kansas University. It was discovered the past summer by Mr. E. C. Case, a member of the University Geological Expedition. The specimen was carefully cleaned on its upper surface, as it lay in the chalk, and then imbedded in plaster before removal. The surface now exposed was the under one, which surface is, almost invariably, better preserved and less distorted than the upper one in these animals. A figure of this specimen is given in Plate I. The only portion restored is that indicated by the line in the lower jaw; it is possible that this part of the symphysis may not be exactly as it is drawn. Other, incomplete, specimens in the Museum confirm the outlines, except in the occipital crest, which is not present. As stated by me in the American Naturalist (l. c.), the type specimen of Pteranodon, also collected by myself, was incomplete, and the figures of it, as given by Marsh, are faulty.