The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Archæopteryx

Archæopteryx, Restored.

ARCHÆOPTERYX (Gr. ἀρχαῖος, ancient, and πτέρυξ, wing), the name given by Owen to the recently discovered long-tailed or reptilian bird of Solenhofen, one of the connecting links between the reptile and the bird, which made its appearance, as far as known, during the oolitic epoch of the Jurassic period. In the mesozoic age, not only the mammals but the birds had reptilian characters, and the earliest birds had long vertebrated tails. The tail in A. macrurus (Owen) was 11 inches long and 31/2 wide; it consisted of 20 vertebræ, with a row of feathers along each side, the feathers being in pairs corresponding to the number of vertebræ, and diverging at an angle of 45°; the last pair extended backward nearly in the axis of the tail, and 31/2 inches beyond it. The wing appears to have had a two-jointed finger, and its breadth was made by feathers as in birds, and not by an expanded membrane as in the pterodactyl and other flying reptiles; the feet were also like those of birds, and its body was covered with feathers. As we know comparatively little of the terrestrial reptiles of the triassic or preceding period of the mesozoic age, and very little of its bird-like forms beyond that afforded by the footprints in the Connecticut valley, it is expected by naturalists friendly to the doctrine of evolution that future researches will reveal birds more reptilian than the archæopteryx, and bird-like reptiles, which will go far toward filling the gap which now exists between reptiles and birds.