ANCESTORS OF BIRDS. 



It is unnecessary to discuss here the relationships of the 

 birdhke reptiles, but, as the most con\dncing argument 

 in support of the theory of the )-eptilian descent of birds, 

 I present a restoration of the Archasopteryx, the earliest 

 known progenitor of the class Aves. This restoration is 



Fro. 1. — Restoration of the Archi"eopteryx, a toothed, reptilclike bird of the 

 Jurassic period. { About 1/5 natural size.) 



based on an examination of previ<;ius restorations in con- 

 nection with a study of the excellent plates which have 

 been published of the fossils themselves."- Two speci- 

 mens have been discovered ; one Ijeing now in the British 

 Museum, the otliei' in the Berlin Museum. They were 

 both found in the lithographic slates of Solenhofen, in 

 Bavaria, a formation of the Jurassic pericjd, and, together, 

 furnish the more important details of the structure of this 

 reptilelike bird. 



This restoration, therefore, while doul)tless inaccurate 



* For recent papers on the Arclia^opteryx see Natural Science 

 (Macmillan Co.), vols, v-viii. 



