In 1809 this specimen came into Cuvier's hands, who at once perceived that it belonged to a reptile that could fly, and it was he who proposed the name Pterodactyl. Until the oracle at Paris was consulted, the greatest uncertainty prevailed, one naturalist regarding it as a bird, another as a bat. Cuvier, with his penetrating eye and patient investigation, combated these theories, supported though they were by weighty authorities. The principal key by means of which he solved the problem, and detected the saurian relationship of the Pterodactyl, seems to have been a certain bone belonging to the skull, known as the quadrate bone. In his great work, _Ossemens Fossiles_, he says, "Behold an animal which, in its osteology, from its teeth to the end of its claws, offers all the characters of the saurians.... But it was, at the same time, an animal provided with the means of flight--which, when stationary, could not have made much use of its anterior extremities, even if it did not keep them always folded as birds keep their wings, which nevertheless might use its small anterior fingers to suspend itself from the branches of trees, but when at rest must have been ordinarily on its hind feet, like the birds again; and also, like them, must have carried its neck sub-erect and curved backwards, so that its enormous head should not interrupt its equilibrium."
Pterodactylus macronyx, or, as it is now called, Dimorphodon macronyx (Fig. 32), was about the size of a raven. It was discovered in 1828 by the late Miss Mary Anning, the well-known collector of fossils from the Liassic rocks that form the cliffs alone: the coast of Dorsetshire, near Lyme-Regis. This important specimen was figured and described by Dr. Buckland, in the _Transactions of the Geological Society_. He suggested the specific name macronyx on account of the great length of the claws.
[Illustration: Fig. 32--Skeleton of _Dimorphodon macronyx_. (After Owen.)]
This authority pointed out an unusual provision for giving support and power of movement to the large head at the extremity of a rather long neck, namely, the occurrence of fine long tendons running parallel to the neck-vertebræ. This does not occur in any modern lizards, whose necks are short, and require no such aid to support the head. They are a compensation for weakness that would otherwise arise from the elongation of the neck, supporting, as it did, such a large head. The neck-vertebræ in this species are large and strong, and capable of great flexibility forwards and backwards, so that the creature, by bending its neck during flight into the shape of an S, could throw its head back towards the centre of gravity. The restoration of the skeleton seen in the figure is by Professor Owen. It is probable that this Pterodactyl could walk on the ground with its wings folded, and perhaps it was also capable of perching on trees, by clinging on to their branches with its feet and toes. When the flying membrane was stretched out it must, on account of the long tail to which it was also attached, have presented a triangular shape, somewhat like a boy's kite.