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Show Flying Animal Millions of Years Old May Teach Moderns Tricks of Game NEW YORK, Jan. 24. The skeleton of a huge flying reptile, probably the largest flying creature that ever existed, which in its pre-historic day was as wide ranging an ocean traveler as a modern seaplane, has been placed on exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History, it was announced today. Study of the, mechanics of the creature's flight, which is plauned by scientists, scien-tists, may throw light on the practical problems of aeronautics, it is declared. The clumsy, toothless animal, a pteranodon which flourished in the age of reptiles, many- millions of years ago. had a wing spread of sixteen feet from tip to tip, but because of its curious dimensions may not have been as heavy as a modern condor which sometimes attains a thirteen foot spread. It was nearly all wings and head, with a small body, slender hind legs and a mere stump of a tail. The specimen was found by Handel T. Martin, curator of the geologic?! museum of Kansas university in the cretaceous chalk beds of the .Smoky Hill river of western Kansas. It is believed to be the; only mounted specimen of a pteranodpn in' any American Ameri-can museum. |