Page:Birdlifeguide00chap.djvu/27

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
ANCESTORS OF BIRDS.
3

It is unnecessary to discuss here the relationships of the birdlike reptiles, but, as the most convincing argument in support of the theory of the reptilian descent of birds, I present a restoration of the Archæopteryx, the earliest known progenitor of the class Aves. This restoration is

Fig. 1.—Restoration of the Archæopteryx, a toothed, reptilelike bird of the Jurassic period. (About 1⁄5 natural size.)
Fig. 1.—Restoration of the Archæopteryx, a toothed, reptilelike bird of the Jurassic period. (About 1⁄5 natural size.)

Fig. 1.—Restoration of the Archæopteryx, a toothed, reptilelike bird of the Jurassic period. (About 15 natural size.)

based on an examination of previous restorations in connection with a study of the excellent plates which have been published of the fossils themselves.[1] Two specimens have been discovered; one being now in the British Museum, the other in the Berlin Museum. They were both found in the lithographic slates of Solenhofen, in Bavaria, a formation of the Jurassic period, and, together, furnish the more important details of the structure of this reptilelike bird.

This restoration, therefore, while doubtless inaccurate

  1. For recent papers on the Archæopteryx see Natural Science (Macmillan Co.), vols, v-viii.