Archaeopteryx

Archaeopteryx (är"kēop'turiks) [key][Gr.,=primitive wing], most primitive known bird, a 150 million-year-old fossil of which was first discovered in 1860 and described the following year in the late Jurassic limestone of Solnhofen, Bavaria. All eight known fossils of Archaeopteryx, discovered between 1860 and 1992, were found in a 516 sq-mi (1,336 sq-km) area of the Solnhofen quarries. Classified as a bird because of the presence of feathers and the structure of the legs and wings, it nevertheless had many characteristics now found only in reptiles or in bird embryos. It was about the size of a pigeon or grackle. It is still debated whether Archaeopteryx was arboreal or a swiftly running terrestrial animal and poor flyer. Some claim that a fossil discovered in West Texas in 1983 and dubbed Protoavis represents a primitive bird that predates Archaeopteryx by some 75 million years.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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