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                 Vol. I.      JULY, 1892        No. 1.

                    THE KANSAS UNIVERSITY QUARTERLY


                        COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION
              E. H. S. BAILEY              F. W. BLACKMAR
               W. H. CARRUTH                C. G. DUNLAP
              E. MILLER                    S. W. WILLISTON
                    V. L. KELLOGG, _Managing Editor_


                                CONTENTS

    KANSAS PTERODACTYLS, PART I.                  _S. W. Williston_
    KANSAS MOSASAURS, PART I.      _S. W. Williston and E. C. Case_
    NOTES AND DESCRIPTIONS OF SYRPHIDAE,               _W. A. Snow_
    NOTES ON MELITERA DENTATA GROTE,                _V. L. Kellogg_
    DIPTERA BRASILIANA, PART II.                  _S. W. Williston_


                      PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY

                            LAWRENCE, KANSAS

                    _Price of this number, 50 cents_

     Entered at the Post-office in Lawrence as Second-class matter

                       JOURNAL PUBLISHING HOUSE,
                           LAWRENCE, KANSAS.
                                 1892.




KANSAS PTERODACTYLS.


BY S. W. WILLISTON.

PART I, WITH PLATE I.

The first American species of the singular group of extinct Mesozoic
reptiles variously know as Ornithosaurs, Pterosaurs or Pterodactyls was
described by Marsh from a fragmentary specimen obtained in 1870, by the
Yale College Expedition in Wallace County, Kansas. About a dozen other
specimens were obtained by a similar expedition the following year in
charge of Professor Marsh, or by Professor Cope, and were described by
these authors shortly afterward. By far the largest number of known
specimens, however, other than those in the Kansas University Museum,
were obtained during the years 1874, ’75, ’76 and ’77 by parties of
which Professor Mudge, Dr. H. A. Brous, E. W. Guild, George Cooper and
myself were the members, and it was from these specimens that most
of the published characters were derived. Many of these specimens
are necessarily fragmentary ones, still the material now in the Yale
College Museum is ample to elucidate everything of interest concerning
these animals.

During the past few years, the Museum of Kansas University has been
enriched by a series of excellent specimens of these animals, obtained
from the same regions, specimens that permit the solution of most of
the doubtful characters and throw not a little light on the affinities
of the Kansas forms.

The species hitherto named are as follows:


PTERANODON.

     _Pteranodon_ Marsh, Amer. Journ. Sci. xi, p. 508,
        June 1876; and xii, p. 479, Dec. 1876; xxiii, p. 253,
        April, 1882; xxvii, p. 423, May, 1881; Williston,
        Amer. Naturalist, xxv, p. 1174, Dec. 1891

=Pteranodon occidentalis.=

     _Pterodactylus Oweni_ Marsh, Amer. Journ. Sci. i, p.
        472, June 1871, Sep. p. 16 (nom. preoc).

     _Pterodactylus occidentalis_ Marsh, Amer. Journ. Sci.
        iii, p. 242, April 1872, Sep. p. 1; Cope, Cretac.
        Vert. p. 68, pl. vii, ff. 5, 6.

     _Ornithocheirus harpyia_ Cope, Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc.
        1872, p. 471 (Cope).

This species was originally based upon the distal end of two
wing-metacarpals, and teeth. In the following year, a fuller
description was given of additional remains referred to the same
species and renamed _P. occidentalis_.

=Pteranodon ingens.=

     _Pterodactylus ingens_ Marsh, Amer. Journ Sci. iii, p.
        246, April 1872, Sep. p. 6.

     _Pteranodon ingens_ Marsh, Amer. Journ. Sci. xi, p.
        508, June 1876.

This species is based upon various bones of the wing-finger of several
individuals, and three teeth.

=Pteranodon umbrosus.=

     _Ornithocheirus umbrosus_ Cope, Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc.
        1872, p. 471.

     _Pterodactylus umbrosus_ Cope, Cret. Vert. p. 65, pl.
        vii, ff. 1-4.

Marsh (Amer. Journ. Sci. xii, p. 480, Dec. 1876) says this name is a
synonym of _P. ingens_, published two days earlier. As this synonymy is
not certain, and as Cope’s species has been figured, I am not ready to
accept his views.

=Pteranodon velox.=

     _Pterodactylus velox_ Marsh, Amer. Journ. Sci. iii, p.
        247, April 1872, Sep. p. 8.

Based upon the distal end of the right metacarpal of the wing-finger,
and the proximal extremity of the adjoining first phalanx, two
uncharacteristic parts of the skeleton, Marsh to the contrary
notwithstanding. It is doubtful whether the direct comparison of the
types will suffice to determine the species with certainty. “Both of
the bones are somewhat distorted by pressure.”

=Pteranodon longiceps.=

     _Pteranodon longiceps_ Marsh, Amer. Journ. Sci. xi,
        p. 508, June 1875; xxvii, p. 424, pl. xv, May 1884.

Based upon a somewhat defective skull, without other bones.
There is no evidence whatever that the species is distinct from the
preceding.

=Pteranodon comptus.=

     _Pteranodon comptus_ Marsh, Amer. Journ. Sci. xi, p.
        509, June 1876.

Based upon wing-bones of three individuals. The description is meagre.

=Pteranodon nanus.=

     _Pteranodon nanus_ Marsh, Amer. Journ. Sci. xxi, p.
        343, April 1881.

Based upon various remains of one individual; the humerus, alone, is
recognizably described.


NYCTODACTYLUS.

_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.

[1] This preoccupation rests, so far as I am aware, upon Marsh’s
statement. I can find no evidence of the name having been previously
used.

=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.

The elements of the skull are all so firmly united that they can
not be distinguished. There are no indications whatever of a horny
sheath enclosing the jaw, and it is improbable that the covering of
these parts was essentially different from that in the slender jawed
_Pterodactylidae_. In texture, the maxillaries are fine-grained, and
wholly without the vascular foramina found in the corresponding bones
of birds. The bones are composed of two thin and firm plates, separated
by cavities which are bounded by irregular walls of bony tissue. In the
compression from which all the Pterodactyl bones have suffered more or
less, the greater resistance of these walls has caused irregularities
upon both the outer and the inner surfaces. At the borders of the
bones, where the thickness has been greater, the roughening is not
observed.

Seen from above, the skull is narrow, as stated by Marsh; but, contrary
to his statement, there is not a sharp ridge extending along the
upper border. This border is obtuse and rounded, and in the frontal
region, flattened. The sagittal crest is large, but not nearly so
large as it is figured by Marsh, the restored outline of whose figure
is undoubtedly wrong. The texture of the bone forming the crest is
materially different from that of the remaining bones of the skull.
The bone is more roughened, and less firm. There is a well-developed
ring of sclerotic ossifications. In the specimen figured, the separate
plates measure from six to eight millimeters in diameter. They were
not imbricated, as in the Pythonomorpha, but have a similar dense
texture. There is a superior temporal arch, bridging over a small
opening leading downward to the inferior temporal fossa. The following
measurements will give the principal dimensions of this specimen.

  Length from tip of premaxillary to occipital condyle    680 millim.
  Extreme length of skull                                 780
  Extent of crest beyond orbit                            145
  Greatest diameter of orbit                               65
  Antero-posterior diameter of nasal opening              135
  Length of quadrate                                      120
  Width of lower jaw at articulation                       22


=Pubis.=

In a previous paper on the anatomy of _Pteranodon_,[2] I stated that
I had never seen the so-called “prepubic bones.” Since that time,
however, an excellent specimen of them has been discovered among
our material. The specimen of which they are a part consists of the
larger portion of the skeleton, and is perhaps conspecific with the
one to which the described pelvis belongs. The figure given herewith
will convey a good idea of their shape. The bones of the two sides
are firmly co-ossified, and have been pressed nearly flat; the figure
represents them as they are spread out in one plane. The bone is
very thin throughout, with a slight thickening at the ischial (_a_)
attachment only. Lying contiguous with the anterior projection, is a
slender ventral rib (_b_). It is possible that the curvature of this
bone may be inward, rather than outward.

[Illustration: FIG. 1.]

[2] Amer. Naturalist, Dec. 1891, p. 1124. In this article the
description of the foot-phalanges should read: “All are slender, except
the second one in the third toe, and the second and third in the fourth
toe, where they are scarcely longer than wide.”

This peculiar structure of the pubis (I believe it represents the
pubis, and not the prepubis), seems to be quite similar to that
which obtains in the genus _Rhamphorhynchus_, and, perhaps also, in
_Pterodactylus suevicus_ (_Cycnorhamphus_ Seeley), and very different
from that found in other species of _Pterodactylus_.

The principal measurements of the above described specimen are as
follows:

  Antero-posterior expansion                    40 millim.
  Length of symphysis                           14
  Expanse of the united bones, as flattened     90
  Width of ischial process                      11


NYCTODACTYLUS.

The type species of this genus was described as follows by its author
(loc. cit. supra):

     “One of the smallest American species yet found is
     represented in the Yale Museum by several bones of the
     wing, a number of vertebrae and the nearly complete
     pelvis. The wing-bones preserved are elongated and very
     slender. The pelvis is unusually small, and there are five
     vertebrae in the sacrum. The last of the series indicates
     that the tail was short. The following are the principal
     measurements of this specimen:

  Length of ulna                                             187 millim.
  Length of metacarpal of wing-finger                        300
  Antero-posterior diameter of outer condyle at distal end    15
  Transverse diameter of shaft, above condyles                13
  Length of first phalanx of wing-finger                     347
  Extent of five vertebrae of sacrum                          57

This species, which may be called _Pteranodon gracilis_, was about
two-thirds the size of _P. velox_ Marsh. It probably measured about ten
feet between the tips of the expanded wings.”

In the December number of the same volume of the American Journal of
Science, he described the genus as follows:

     “A second genus of American Pterodactyls is represented
     in the Yale Museum by