CHAP. XXII. FEATHERED ARCH.IOPTERYX OF THE OOLITE. 451 



The last and most striking of these novelties is "the 

 feathered fossil" from the lithographic stone of Solen- 

 hofen. 



Until the year 1858, no well-determined skeleton of a bird 

 had been detected in any rocks older than the tertiary. In 

 that year, Mr. Lucas Barrett found in the upper greensand 

 of the cretaceous series, near Cambridge, the femur, tibia, 

 and some other bones of a swimming bird, supposed by him 

 to be of the gull tx'ibe. His opinion as to the ornithic 

 character of the remains was afterwards confirmed by 

 Professor Owen. 



The Archceo2)teryx macrurus, Owen, recently acquired by 

 the British Museum, affords a second example of the dis- 

 covery of the osseous remains of a bird in strata older than 

 the Eocene. It was found in the great quarries of litho- 

 graphic limestone at Pai^penheim, near Solenhofen in Ba- 

 varia, the rock being a member of the Upper Oolite. 



It was at first conjectured in Germany, before any ex- 

 jDerienced osteologist had had an opportunity of inspecting 

 the original specimen, that this fossil might be a feathered 

 pterodactyl (flying reptiles having been often met with in 

 the same stratum), or that it might at least supply some 

 connecting links between a reptile and a bii'd. But Pro- 

 fessor Owen, in a memoir lately read to the Eoyal Society 

 (November 20, 1862), has shown that it is unequivocally a 

 bird, and that such of its characters as are abnormal are by 

 no means strikingly reptilian. The skeleton was Ij^ing on 

 its back when imbedded in calcareous sediment, so that the 

 venti'al part is exposed to view. It is about one foot eight 

 inches long, and one foot four across, from the apex of the 

 right to that of the left wing. The furculum, or merry- 

 thought, which is entire, marks the fore part of the trunk ; 

 the ischium, scapula, and most of the wing and leg bones 

 are preserved, and there are impressions of the quill-feathers 



