Pterodactyl Over Paris: Victorian Crowd Watches Flying Beast Near Eiffel Tower

Paris stands under a star-scattered night sky as elegantly dressed Parisians — women in puffed-sleeve gowns, men in top hats — crane their necks skyward in alarm and wonder. The newly-built Eiffel Tower looms as a dark silhouette behind them, while above it all, a massive prehistoric flying creature — a pterodactyl or giant bat — cuts through the darkness. This is scientific romance at its most theatrical: civilization confronted by primordial terror beneath the very symbol of modern progress.