The Theory of Evolution 53 
ancestral form is supposed to have become very short, and 
long feathers to have grown out from its stump which act 
as a rudder during flight. Flying reptiles with winged fore- 
legs and a long vertebrated tail have been actually found as 
fossil remains, as seen in the pterodactyls and in the famous 
archeopteryx. The latter, which is generally regarded either 
as the immediate ancestor of living birds, or at least as a 
closely similar form, possessed a fore-leg having three fingers 
ending in claws, and feathers on the forearm similar to those 
of modern birds. It had a long tail, like that of a lizard, but 
with well-developed feathers along its sides. It had pointed 
teeth in the horn-covered jaws. Fleischmann proceeds to point 
out that the resemblance of the hand of archzopteryx to 
that of the reptiles is not very close, for two fingers are 
absent as in modern birds. The typical form of the foot is 
that of the bird, and is not the simple reptilian type of struc- 
ture. Feathers and not scales cover the body, and give no 
clew as to how the feathers of birds have arisen. He con- 
cludes, therefore, that archzopteryx, having many true bird- 
like characters, such as feathers, union of bones in the foot, 
etc., has other characters not possessed by living birds, 
namely, a long, vertebrated tail, a flat breastbone, biconcave 
vertebra, etc. Therefore, it cannot be regarded as an inter- 
mediate form. Fleischmann does not point out that it is just 
these characters that would be postulated on the descent 
theory for the ancestor of the’birds, if the latter arose from 
reptiles. Even if it should turn out that archzopteryx is 
not the immediate forefather of living birds, yet the dis- 
covery that a form really existed intermediate in many 
characters between the reptiles and the birds is a gain for 
the transmutation theory. It is from a group having such 
characters that the theory postulates that the birds have been 
evolved, and to have discovered a member of such a group 
speaks directly and unmistakably in favor of the proba- 
bility of the transmutation theory. 
