THIRD ANNUAL MEETING 15 



ARCHAEOPTERYX 



HoAvever, the structure of the form .iust described seems less incon- 

 gruous to those who are familiar with the ArchaeopterjTC from the 

 limestone of the Solenhofen quarries of Bavaria, the present accepted 

 starting point of avian history. The ancestors of this ancestor must be 

 sought in the Triassic or possibly in the Permian. This ancient reptilian 

 bird, figured in every geology, did not have a full set of 

 free digits it is true, but it did have three free digits in \^ 

 the hand or wing, and in other respects is a prettj' fair 

 sort of connecting link between the reptiles of sandstone 

 days and the birds of the present. Here one finds rep- 

 tilian and avian characters blended in a manner so ex- 



h 



traordinary as to furnish food for contemplation, and we 'v^ 



may wonder if the "missing links" are really missing. 



The Archaeopteryx, according to most palaeontolo- 

 gists, was distinctly a bird with the ear marks of its 

 kind, but ^vith many peculiarities inherited from its rep- ^l^ 



tilian grandparents. According- to others, it is a quadru- ^^ « 



ped, not a bird; but its plumage is the most unerring ^ ^^> 

 evidence of its avian relationship. Yet divested of this 

 its body would have resembled a lizard or a small biped ^^ Kf> 

 dinosaurian reptile. There were quill feathers on the W^ ^{f 

 wings, legs and tail, and possibly a total absence of f' P, 



feathers on the body. Still, in this connection, it is not € fe^ 



amiss to note a strikingly suggestive resemblance to the g^ 



^ h 



pterodactyl called Rhamphorhynchus. Each had long . " 



forearms and hands and three free claws. The feathers ^^ 



are like those of birds but are unique in that there are 



quill feathers on the legs and a pair of rudder feathers 



corresponding to each caudal vertebra. This avian 



lizard had advanced to the point where it had adopted 



feathers for scales and had an elongated lizard-like tail. 



Because of this last-named peculiarity Archaeopteryx has 



been classified v^ath the Saururae (lizard-tailed forms). The 



head, though bird-like, was lizard-like in outward aspect 



at least, for there was no horny beak and the jaws were 



set with conical (^ 



teeth. Its feet ,;f>^^ ^■- s^ 



were tridactyl as ^' '"'-^^-.^ ^ — - -■ 



were many of the ^^ ^.^ (^ 



dinosaurs. Its 



Fig. 36 — "Bird" tracks in the Connecticut river sandstone (Triassic). Not until several 

 thousand of its tracks had been found was it discovered that the "bird" had 

 fingers and was a biped dinosaur. Observe the marks of the fingers left while 

 fumbling for something in the mud. Observe also the heels such as birds do not 

 have and the impression of the ischial bones in the portion, a to h, which is drawn 

 from a slab in the museum of Yale University. 



9 



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