Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 60.djvu/328

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320
POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

of teeth, are known from the chalk of England. Rhamphorhynchus and the still earlier Dimorphodon, as well as the later Pterodactylus are from the Jurassic deposits of England.

Restoration of Rhamphorhynchus. One-eighth Natural Size After Marsh.
View of Cretaceous Chalk Deposits of Western Kansas.

That the Pteranodon had a marvelous capacity for flight, there can be hardly a question. Their remains are often found in the Kansas marine chalk deposits associated with others of deep-sea animals, and many miles away from the ancient shore lines; found so completely preserved that they never could have drifted far. With their remains have been found the fossilized stomach contents, including comminuted fish bones and scales. The bones of their skeletons were very hollow and light, perhaps more so than in any other animals that have ever lived; so light indeed that a finger bone twenty-six inches in length might be best likened to a hollow cylinder of blotting paper