The brain of Pterodactylus

Abstract

The investigation of the neurocranium of a Pterodactylus elegans and a comparative review of the figures of other Pterodactylus skulls and of the yet undescribed endocranial casts furnish a complete picture of the Pterodactylus brain, except for the base. The comparison of the Tithonian Pterodactylus brain eith the Cretaceous pterodactyloid and the Liassic and Thithonian rhamphorhynchoid brains shoe that while the form and position of the nervous centers of the olfactory and optic senses and the position of the cerebellum are avian in every pterosaurian, bird-like form of the cerebellum and forebrain are achieved only in the later forms of both suborders.