These characteristics are seen more in modern flying birds and are not found in the older Archaeopteryx lithographica species, which more resembles reptiles and dinosaurs.
The researcher said that some of the differing skeletal characteristics of Archaeopteryx albersdoerferi include the fusion of cranial bones, different pectoral girdle (chest) and wing elements, and a reinforced configuration of carpals and metacarpals (hand) bones. You could say that it puts Archaeopteryx back on its perch as the first bird! It confirms Archaeopteryx as the first bird, and not just one of a number of feathered theropod dinosaurs, which some authors have suggested recently. Whenever a missing link is discovered, this merely creates two further missing links – what came before, and what came after! What came before was discovered in 1996 with the feathered dinosaurs in China. John Nudds, from the University of Manchester’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, is co-author of the study, published October 24, 2018, in the peer-reviewed journal Historical Biology. The researchers concluded that that this individual Archaeopteryx fossil, known as specimen number eight, was physically much closer to a modern bird than it is to a reptile. Only 12 fossil specimens have ever been found.įor the study, the team re-examined one of these 12 fossil specimens by carrying out the first ever synchrotron examination, a form of 3-D X-ray analysis. Archaeopteryx was first described as the “missing link” between reptiles and birds in 1861. It was about the size of a magpie, with the largest individuals possibly attaining the size of a raven. Now, an international team of scientists has identified a new species of Archaeopteryx that they say is closer to modern birds in evolutionary terms and distinctive and different enough to be described as a new species – Archaeopteryx albersdoerferi.Īrchaeopteryx lived in what is now southern Germany during a time when Europe was an archipelago of islands in a warm, shallow tropical sea. Known as “the missing link” between dinosaurs and birds, Archaeopteryx lived lived in the Late Jurassic around 150 million years ago.
The 2019 lunar calendars are here! Order yours before they’re gone. Image via Zhao Chuang/Martin Kundrát/PNSO/University of Manchester. Artist’s concept of Archaeopteryx albersdoerferi.
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