Dragons of the Air

Sir Richard Owen coined the term "dinosaur" ("Terrible Reptile" or "Fearfully Great Reptile") in the 19th century. When Harry G. Seeley, a student of law at that time, attended a lecture on flying reptiles, his interest in paleontology was piqued, and he pursued paleontology for the remainder of his life. He determined that dinosaurs could be divided into two groups, the lizard-hipped dinosaurs and the bird-hipped dinosaurs. He is also credited with characterizing flying dinosaurs as warm-blooded active flyers rather than cold-blooded passive gliders. His popular book on the flying dinosaurs, Dragons of the Air, is a comprehensive treatise on the structure, classification, and possible evolutionary origins of the Pterosaurs as well as their relationship to birds. - Summary by Jeffery Smith (7 hr 51 min)

Chapters

Preface	4:28	Read by Jeffery
Chapter 1 - Flying Reptiles	6:55	Read by Jeffery
Chapter 2 - How a Reptile is Known	16:18	Read by Jeffery
Chapter 3 - A Reptile is Known by its Bones	7:04	Read by Jeffery
Chapter 4 - Animals Which Fly	20:27	Read by Jeffery
Chapter 5 - Discovery of the Pterodactyle	19:29	Read by Jeffery
Chapter 6 - How Animals are Interpreted by their Bones	16:00	Read by Jeffery
Chapter 7 - Interpretation of Pterodactyles by Their Soft Parts	25:45	Read by Jeffery
Chapter 8 - The Plan of the Skeleton	44:16	Read by Jeffery
Chapter 9 - The Backbone, or Vertebral Column	29:46	Read by Jeffery
Chapter 10 - The Hip Girdle and Hind Limb	28:24	Read by Jeffery
Chapter 11 - Shoulder Girdle and Fore Limb	56:32	Read by Jeffery
Chapter 12 - Evidences of the Animal's Habits from its Remains	20:28	Read by Jeffery
Chapter 13 - Ancient Ornithosaurs from the Lias	21:13	Read by Jeffery
Chapter 14 - Rhamphocephalus	35:34	Read by Jeffery
Chapter 15 - Ornithosaurs from the Upper Secondary Rocks	26:48	Read by Jeffery
Chapter 16 - Classification of the Ornithosauria	15:04	Read by Jeffery
Chapter 17 - Family Relations of Pterodactyles to Animals which lived with them	34:35	Read by Jeffery
Chapter 18 - How Pterodactyles may have originated	42:08	Read by Jeffery

Dragons of the Air

Harry Seeley

Read by Jeffery

Chapters