Page 19 - Prehistoric Animals

Are-Key-Optrix

Archaeopteryx

What is a Dinosaur ?
Known as a Dinosaur

Archaeopteryx (meaning ‘ancient wing’) lived in the Late Jurassic around 150 million
years ago. This was a time when Europe was much closer to the equator and basked in a near
tropical climate. Most of what we know about Archaeopteryx comes from fossils found in central
Europe. In 1861, Hermann von Meyer, unearthed the first fossil; a single fossilised feather. He
published a description of the fossil, naming it, Archaeopteryx lithographica. Shortly after-
wards, a skeletonized fossil, missing a head, was found and named in 1862 by Richard Ow-
en as Archaeopteryx macrura. Naming it,‘macrura’, thinking, because of its small size, it was a
different species from the larger fossilized feathered, A.lithographica.

Since then several fossils have been found showing the size of Archaeopteryx can vary,
from a very small bird to a large raven. They also show it had conical teeth on its jaws, claws on
its wings, an extendable second toe (‘killing claw’) and a long bony tail. These features seem to
suggest Archaeopteryx was a carnivore, and possibly lived on a diet of small reptiles, mammals
or insects. The skeletonized fossils also help categorised Archaeopteryx as a Dinosaur (theropob)
with feathers. Archaeopteryx, at the time, was the oldest feathered Dinosaur known. All that
change in 20 and 21 century when older feathered dinosaurs were found in China, dating
th
st
back to around 155 million years ago.

With the publication of Darwin’s, ‘Origin of the species’, so close to the discovery of Ar-
chaeopteryx, a whole new debate sprang up. Applying Darwin’s theory seemed to suggest that a
feathered dinosaur could be a distant ancestor and link to the modern day birds. However, with
only fossils dating back millions of years and no clear understanding of how these feathered di-
nosaurs lived, or moved around, it looks like this debate, which has dragged on and off for dec-
ades, will for the moment, at least, remain in the realm of hope and theory.