Imagine, if you will, a real creature that resembles two different types of animals in one! The name Archaeopteryx means old wing. Discovered in Germany it is sometimes called by its German name Urvogel, meaning "first bird.
It is true that at the time of its discovery birds were the only animals with feathers, so it would be logical to think that archaeopteryx was a bird. However, it also possessed teeth and bones in the tail, called caudal vertebrae.
This is what made scientists scratch their heads, because birds typically do not have teeth or tail bones. The teeth were small and spiked, well suited for eating small creatures such as insects, worms, and lizards, among others. In any case archaeopteryx was the first bird like animal discovered. Many other bird like dinosaurs have been found since that time. However scientists have not yet found fossils of the first true bird.
Most researchers do agree that the first bird probably desended from archaeopteryx. The family tree follows the saurischian-theropod-dromeosaur line and is most closely related to the raptors. The front limbs were held out by long upper arm bones, and had a wingspan of about 20 to 28 inches. Archaeopteryx had long feathers along its wings, that are ideal for flight.
However, it lacked the proper muscles to help it fly. It is possible that the archaeopteryx flew short, low distances, or perhaps they were able to glide from high tree branches. Due to the lack of keel though, the feathers were probably used for warmth and protection. Another unique feature of the archaeopteryx were its claws. It had thee-toed claws, similar to modern birds, but the first toes was reversed so that it could grasp on perch on branches.
As a form of payment, it was given to a doctor, who later sold it to the London Natural History Museum. The discovery coincided with the publication of Darwin's "On the Origin of Species," and the specimen, dubbed the London Specimen, seemed to confirm his theories.
Through various transactions, the fossil, which is the first found to have an intact head, eventually wound up being in the Humboldt Museum fur Naturkunde, where it still resides. The 12th and last Archaeopteryx specimen to be found was discovered in and announced in , but hasn't yet been scientifically described. Recent discoveries from China, Mongolia and Argentina have shaken up what paleontologists knew about the relationship between stem-birds and bird-like theropods.
In , scientists uncovered a fossil in Liaoning, China, whose combination of features unexpectedly suggested Archaeopteryx was actually just a relative of the lineage that ultimately gave rise to birds. When the researchers analyzed features of the new specimen, Xiaotingia zhengi , and Archaeopteryx , they concluded that both animals belonged to the dinosaur group Deinonychosauria — bird-like theropods, which includes Velociraptor and Microraptor — instead of the stem-bird group Avialae.
The analysis, published in Nature, also suggested the earliest known avialan is a pigeon-size feathered creature known as Epidexipteryx hui , recently discovered in Inner Mongolia, China. However, subsequent analyses including Foth's study of Archaeopteryx , Xiaotingia and other creatures, such as Aurornis and Anchiornis , have restored Archaeopteryx to its Avialae roots.
Per definition, these guys would [now] be the oldest representatives of stem-birds, but Archaeopteryx would be the first definitely fightable representative.
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