Archaeopteryx lithographica

Locomoção

• Archaeopteryx could fly actively, probably in short bursts.

  Nível de evidência: Evidência moderadaFontes · 1

  Its feathers have the asymmetric shape of flight feathers and its wing bones match those of birds that flap in short bursts. Its shoulder was less advanced than modern birds', so it was not a strong flier.

  Evidências a favor / contra · 2

  Evidências a favor

  • Histologia · Archaeopteryx wing bone cross-sections

    Synchrotron scans of wing bones show thin walls and a geometry closer to birds that flap in short bursts than to non-flying animals.

  • Impressão de penas · Archaeopteryx flight feather impressions

    Asymmetric flight feathers on the wings and a pair of rows along the tail, preserved in the limestone around the skeletons.

    Espécime: NHMUK PV OR 37001 “London specimen”, MB.Av.101 “Berlin specimen”

Pele e revestimento

• At least some of the feathers of Archaeopteryx were black.

  Nível de evidência: Evidência moderadaFontes · 1

  Pigment structures preserved in one isolated feather match those of black feathers in living birds. It says nothing about the rest of the plumage, and the feather's owner is assumed to be Archaeopteryx.

  Evidências a favor / contra · 1

  Evidências a favor

  • Impressão de penas · Melanosomes in the isolated Archaeopteryx feather

    Fossil pigment structures (melanosomes) in the 1861 feather, compared with living birds, indicate a dark, probably matte black colour.

Penas

• Archaeopteryx had flight feathers on its arms, tail and legs.

  Nível de evidência: Evidência diretaFontes · 2

  The feathers are preserved as impressions in the fine limestone, including asymmetric wing feathers like those of flying birds and, in one specimen, pennaceous leg feathers.

  Evidências a favor / contra · 1

  Evidências a favor

  • Impressão de penas · Archaeopteryx flight feather impressions

    Asymmetric flight feathers on the wings and a pair of rows along the tail, preserved in the limestone around the skeletons.

    Espécime: NHMUK PV OR 37001 “London specimen”, MB.Av.101 “Berlin specimen”

Outros

• Archaeopteryx is an early member of the bird lineage (Avialae).

  Nível de evidência: Evidência moderadaFontes · 2

  Most family-tree analyses put it at the base of the bird lineage, but some place it closer to Velociraptor. It is best read as a close relative near the origin of birds, not the ancestor of living birds.

  Evidências a favor / contra · 1

  Evidências a favor

  • Inferência filogenética · Phylogenetic analyses placing Archaeopteryx

    Most analyses recover Archaeopteryx as the earliest avialan; Xu et al. (2011) recovered it among deinonychosaurs instead.

Viveu em: Solnhofen archipelago

há 152–150 milhões de anos · ilha, margem marinha, outro

Warm, shallow lagoons behind reefs, dotted with low, dry islands, on the northern margin of the Tethys Sea in the Late Jurassic. The stagnant, salty bottom water let fine lime mud bury carcasses in exceptional detail.