Abstract
ARCHÆOPTERYX MAORURA.—A very able article on this strange-feathered animal by Prof. Carl Vogt was read before the Saint Gall Meeting of the Congress of Swiss Naturalists, and was published in the Revue Scientifique for September, 1879. This has been translated in the recently-published number of Ibis, with a photograph of Herr Häberlein's specimen. H. von Meyer, in 1861, described this species (under the specific name lithagraphica) from the impression of a “bird's” feather in the Solenhofen slate. Prof. Owen, on the discovery by Dr. Häberlein of a specimen (imperfect) described it “as he alone knows how to do.” The head of this specimen was wanting. Dr. Häberlein's son, about 1875, succeeded in splitting a slab so skilfully as to have on one of its halves the whole animal, and on the other its impression. This specimen Herr Häberlein is anxious to dispose of, and it is the one described by Carl Vogt. The animal preserved in the slab is of the size of a ringdove. The remains described by Prof. Owen belong to the same species, but to an example greater by a fifth. It is entire; the head, neck, trunk, and hind-quarters are placed in profile, the head is bent backwards, so that its top nearly touches the back. The wings, united at the shoulder girdle, are spread as if for flight. The head is small, pyramidal, nearly flat. The orbit is large, with the nostril in front of it. By means of a lens two little conical and sharp teeth are perceived at the end, planted in the upper jaw. On the lower surface there is a forked bone to be seen, but Prof. Vogt dare not say whether this is the lower jaw or a tongue bane; the bones of the head show clearly that it is a true reptile's head. Its shoulder-girdle proves also to be that of a reptile. In fact the head, the neck, the thorax, with the ribs, the tail, the shoulder-girdle, and the whole fore-limb, are plainly constructed as in reptiles. The pelvis has probably more agreement with that of reptiles than with that of birds. The hind-foot is that of a bird, therefore reptilian affinities prevail in the skeleton over all others. The fevthers are those of a bird. The remiges of the wings are fixed to the ulnar edge of the arm and to the hand; they are covered for nearly half their length with a fine filiform down; none of them project beyond the others. It ii possible that at the base of the neck there was a ruff like that of the condor. The tibia was clothed with feathers for the whole of its length. Archseopteryx thus wore breeches, as do our falcons All the other parts of the body were evidently naked. It would thus seem to take its rank neither among birds nor reptiles. It forms an intermediate type of the most marked kitid, and confirms in a brilliant way the views of Prof. Huxley, who has united birds and reptiles—to form of them under the name of Suuropsids, a single great section of Vertebrates.
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Biological Notes . Nature 23, 276–278 (1881). https://doi.org/10.1038/023276b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/023276b0