The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-12-01

OF the Smithsonian institution have
made an interesting study of what is
believed to have been the largest fly
ing creature that ever hOurished on
this planet-the ..petrodactyl ornithe-
stroma," an enormous flying lizard
whose wings had d spread of twenty
feet from tip to tip and whose habitat,
ages upon ages ago. embraced the
shores of the great inland sea that then
extended from the Gulf of Mexico I'D
through the Mississippi valley 10 the
plains Of Kansas.
Professor F. A. Lucas of the United
states national museum describes this
remarkable creature in a paper in
Guided in the latest report of the
Smithsonian institution which is issued
this month for general free distribu-
ton through congressman. Incidentally
he compares the pterOdactyI with the
/ flying power of our better known mod
ern birds, and 5. P. Langley, sec
rotary of the institution, compares it
with the novel flying machine by means
Of which he has been able to prove
mans ability to construct a mechan-
I ism that will carry about the same
weight as the pterodactyl for a flight
! of thTee-Quarters OF a mile.
The pterOdactyl, as the remains which
Professor Lucas has examined prove
depended almost altogether on his
wings; his legs were so small that
they could hardly have been of any
service except in spreading the wing
membranes These wing, as has been
shown by the impression left by them
in the fine-grained photographic stone
of the period in which the owner lived.
! flew, and had his being, were not
feathered like the wings of a bird
but were great stretches of membrane
! something like the wings of a bat. The
! k.@.~4 N-1sr7 -.
out hair or feathers, and possibly was
covered with small scales. The bones.
again, were proportionate1y smaller
and lighter than a birds, the strength
of the framework being obtained by
bracing the shoulder blades against
the backbone, so that the thirty-pound
body Of the pterodactyl was literally
slung on a pivot between its two far
reaching pinions-
This lightness as compared with size
must have given its appearance, seen
at distance, much Of the cheerful
gaiety of the ordinary summer butter
fly. This brother to dragons was no
/ butterfly, however, on close acquaint-
ance. It's face was its main feature
for its head, chiefly dagger-like beak
about four feet long, was so dispro-
portiOnately large that the body was
only just big enough to balance it.
This formidable beak was probably
covered with a thin. hard skin like the
epidermiS Of a crocodile suppoSition
based on the fact that none of the liz
ard family, TO which this great fly
ing fisherman so evidently belonged,
shows any evidence of the horny, bird
like bill that might otherwise have been
expected. In the lower part of this
beak is the suggestion of a former
pouch like that in which the cormO-
rant carries fish
Like other animals with long mar
row wings" says Professor Lucas.
q 'Ornithostroma' doubtless sailed
somewhat after the manner of the al
batross. This is inferred not only from
the size and shape Of the wing, but
from the comparatively small size Of
the breast bone, to which were at
tached the muscles used in flight. Birds
which fly by strokes of their pinions
have the breast bone deeply keeled to
furnish room for the attachment of the
wing muscles, and the size of this keel
is in direct relation to the rapidity
of the wing strokes, reaching its maxi
mum in the humming birds, in which
the wings are vibrated so rapidly as to
be invisible. Birds which sail have the
breast muscles much reduced, and the
extreme of reduction is found in the
frigate bird, which, with a spread of
wing six feet four inches, has a mus
Naturally a comparative study Of
this once living flying machine and the
birds and other flying creatures with
which We are all more or less familiar
brings up a good many interesting
points not usually touched upon in
popular courses of nature study. No
one animal, Professor Lucas tells US,
has ever combined all the best fea-
lures of weight, power and wing area
mechanism. Those with the greatest
expanse of wing, for example, are by
no means the heaviest and strongest
The most powerful birds are not those
! that can fly longest Those which are
a BILE to fly the longest distances, such,
for example, as the frigate bird, have
| little carrying capacity, and compare
lively little muscular power making
their long flights quite as much by
skill in sailing as by the strength of
| their wing muscles. The bird of prey,
on the other hand, although it can
carry a fish or other quarry Of nearly
its own number of pounds and ounces,
works hard to do it, as you may see
| by watching the ldbOred strokes of its
pinions as it climbs upwards. The
buzzard is like a racing yacht with
small hull and great spread Of canvas;
the humming bird. on the other hand,
is torpedo boat, mainly engine.
Among modern flying animals that
suggest comparison with the pterodac-
| tyl, the largest are the albatrOSS, with
wings ten feet and more in stretch;
| the condor, with a stretch of wing of
about ten feet, and the turkey buzz
zard, whose wings extend about six
feet The wings of the condor and
| buzzard however, are not so narrow
I in proportion to their length and are
used in soaring. The pterOdactyl, like
/ the modern albatrOss, which takes a
| longer sustained flight than any other
| bird now in existence, probably never
went high in the air, but the position
| in which its bones have been shown
| indicates that it went far out to sea
| in search of such unlucky fishes as
might be swimming within half a doZ-
| en- feet of the surface And the alba
/ tross is credited with greater stretch
/ of wing than any other creature now
/ living. The same claim, based upon a
| statement that it sometimes attains a
spread of fifteen feet, has been made
1 for the condor, but this statement. Pro
| fessor Lucas points out, has never been
satisfactorily proven by actual meas
urement. The trumpeter swan comes
nearest the pterodactyl in weight, at
I tanning some twenty-eight pounds,
/ which it carries, however, not by sail
| ing near the surface like the pterodac-
/ tyl or the albatross, but by strenuous
exertion of its powerful muscles.
a