Dimorphodon and the Reverend George Howman's noctivagous flying dragon: the earliest restoration of a pterosaur in its natural habitat

Abstract

A framed water colour of a noctivagous pterosaur by the Reverend G. E. Howman displayed on a wall on the first floor of the Philpot Museum, Lyme Regis, Dorset is the earliest depiction of a restored pterosaur in its life environment. The image is a naive effort based more on mythology than on fact, but its haunting mood was a harbinger of antediluvian depictions by artists that were to become icons of prehistoric restoration. It predates Henry de la Beche's famous Duria Antiquior by just one year.