Archaeopteryx lithographica von Meyer, 1861

The famous feathered theropod from the Late Jurassic Solnhofen limestone of Germany. As the first non-avian dinosaur found with feather impressions, it flummoxed Victorian Era paleontologists, who lacked a mental image that could frame what a feathered dinosaur was, so it has been often labeled “the first bird” despite differing in almost all features from modern birds.

The long bony tail, toothed jaws, three-fingered hands and several other features look far more like its close relatives among basal troodontids and dromaeosaurs. The degree of flight - if any - is still debated to this day, although the absence of an ossified pectoral girdle, and a reduced range of “flapping” motion at the shoulder means it certainly could not fly in the manner of living birds. Some debates still ongoing include whether the second toes hyperextended the way they do in Velociraptor and other relatives, and whether more than one species is mixed up among the several exceptionally preserved individuals that are known, although the most recent papers argue against both of these interpretations.

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