ARCHAEOPTERYX

This article appears in Volume V02, Page 356 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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ARCHAEOPTERYX . The name of Archaeopteryx lithographica was based by Hermann vnMeyeruponafeather(Gr.rrrEpvE,wing) found in 1861 in the lithographic slate quarries of Solenhofen in Bavaria, the geological horizon being that of the himmeridge clay of the Upper Orlite or Jurassic system. In the same year and at the same place was discovered the specimen (

figs

FIGS

. 1 and 3)
value of by the relics themselves and by their relation to
ethnology.
now in the British Museum, named by Andreas Wagner Griphosaurus. Sir R. Owen has described it as A. ,nzacroura. Stimulated by the high price paid by the British Museum, the quarry owners diligently searched, and in 1872 another, much finer, preserved specimen was found. This was bought by K. W.
v. Siemens, who presented it to the Berlin Museum. The

late

LATE

W. Dames has written an excellent monograph on it.
Archaeopteryx was a bird, without any doubt, but still with so many low, essentially reptilian characters that it forms a link between these two classes. About the size of a rook, its most
After a photograph taken from a cast.
obvious peculiarity is the long reptilian tail, composed of 20 vertebrae and not ending in a pygostyle. The last dozen vertebrae each carry a pair of well-developed typical quills. Upon these features of the tail E. Haeckel established the subclass Saururae, containing solely Archaeopteryx, in opposition to the Ornithurae, comprising all the other birds. Herein he has been followed by many zoologists. However, the fact that various

recent

RECENT

birds possess the same kind of caudal skeleton, likewise without a pygostyle, although reduced to at least 13 vertebrae, shows that the two terms do not express a fundamental difference.
The importance of Archaeopteryx justifies the following descriptive detail. Vertebral column composed of about 50 vertebrae, viz. 10-11 cervical, 12-11 thoracic, 2 lumbar, 5-6 sacral, and 20 or 21 caudal, with a total caudal length of the Berlin specimen of 7 in. The cervical and thoracic vertebrae seem to be biconcave; the cervical ribs are much reduced and were apparently still movable; the thoracic ribs are devoid of uncinate processes. Paired abdominal ribs are doubtful. Scarcely anything is known of the sternum, and little of the

shoulder

SHOULDER (in O.E. sculder, cognate with Ger. Schulter, Dutch schouder, Swed. skuldra, &c; the root is unknown)

girdle

GIRDLE (O. Eng. gyrdel, from gyrdan, to gird; cf. Ger. Gurtel, Dutch gordel, from giirten and gorden; "gird" and its doublet " girth " together with the other Teutonic cognates have been referred by some to the root ghar—to seize, enclose, seen in Gr. )(s

, except the very stout furcula; scapula typically bird-like. Humerus about 2 z in. long, with a strong crista lateralis, which indicates a strongly developed

great

GREAT

pectoral muscle and hence, by inference, the presence of a keel to the sternum. Radius and ulna typically avine, 2.1 in. in length. Carpus with two

separate

SEPARATE

bones. The hand skeleton consists of 3 completely

separate

SEPARATE

metacarpals, each carrying a corn-
plete, likewise free,

finger

FINGER

; the shortened thumb with 2, the index with 3, the third with 4 phalanges; each

finger

FINGER

with a curved claw. The whole wing is consequently, although essentially avine, still reptilian in the unfused state of the metacarpals and the numbers of the phalanges. The pelvis is imperfectly known. The preacetabular portion of the ilium is shorter than the posterior half. The hind-limb is typically avine, with intertarsal

joint

JOINT (through Fr. from Lat. junctum, jungere, to join)

, distally reduced fibula, and the three elongated metatarsals which show already considerable anchylosis; reduction of the toes to four, with 2, 3, 4 and 5 phalanges; the hallux is separate, and as usual in

recent

RECENT

birds posterior in position. Skull bird-like, except that the short bill cannot have been enclosed in a horny rhamphotheca, since the upper jaw shows a row of 13, the lower jaw 3 conical teeth, all implanted in distinct sockets.
The remiges and rectrices indicate perfect feathers, with

shaft

and complete vanes which were so neatly finished that they must have possessed typical radii and booklets. Some of the quills measure fully 5 in. in length. Six or seven remiges were attached to the hand, ten to the ulna.
It is idle to speculate on the habits of this earliest of known birds. That it could fly is certain, and the feet show it to have
pli ~ Ill'
OjI
been well adapted to arboreal life. The clawed slender fingers did not make Archaeopteryx any more quadrupedal or bat-like in its habits than is a kestrel hawk, with its equally large, or even larger thumb-claw.
p. 679; Sir R. Owen, " On the Archaeopteryx von Meyer . . " Phil. Trans., 1863, PP. 33-47, pls. i.-iv. ; T. H. Huxley, " Remarks on the Skeleton of the Archaeopteryx and on the relations of the bird to the reptile," Geol. Hag. i., 1864, pp. 55-57 ; C. Vogt, " L'Archaeo-
pteryx macrura," Revue scient. de la France et de l'etranger, 1879, pp. 241-248; W. Dames, " Uber Archaeopteryx," Palaeontol. Abhandl. ii. (Berlin, 1884) ; Idem, " Uber Brustbein Schulter- and Beckengurtel der Archaeopteryx," Math. naturw. Mitth. Berlin. Vii. (1897), pp. 476-492. (H. F. G.)
ARCHAISM (adj. " archaic "; from Gr. apxaZos, old), an old-fashioned usage, or the deliberate employment of an out-of-date and ancient mode of expression.

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