Archaeopteryx lithographica

运动方式

• Archaeopteryx could fly actively, probably in short bursts.

  证据等级：中等证据来源 · 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.

  支持 / 反对证据 · 2

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  • 组织学 · 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.

  • 羽毛印痕 · 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.

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

皮肤与体表覆盖

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

  证据等级：中等证据来源 · 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.

  支持 / 反对证据 · 1

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  • 羽毛印痕 · 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.

羽毛

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

  证据等级：直接证据来源 · 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.

  支持 / 反对证据 · 1

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  • 羽毛印痕 · 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.

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

其他

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

  证据等级：中等证据来源 · 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.

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  • 系统发育推断 · Phylogenetic analyses placing Archaeopteryx

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

生活于： Solnhofen archipelago

152–150 百万年前 · 岛屿, 海洋边缘, 其他

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.