316 On a Feathered Fossil. 



" On the Arcliceopteryx lithographica, from the Lithographic 

 Slate of Solenhofen," by Hermann Yon Meyer.* 



In referring to the notices given of this wonderful discovery, 

 I prefer to take H. Von Meyer's paper first, as being the 

 palaeontologist who first really called attention to the subject. 

 He reminds us, that " feathers, or indeed any remains of birds, 

 have hitherto been known in no rocks older than the Tertiary 

 period ;" and that in the lithographic slate, osseous remains 

 of birds have frequently been supposed to occur, which upon 

 closer investigation appeared to belong to Pterodactyles (perhaps 

 to Rhamplwrhynclii) , from the structure of which we cannot 

 infer that the animals were clothed with feathers, and no traces 

 of feathers were ever seen with the numerous Pterodactyles 

 found, the skeletons of some of which were perfect. He goes 

 on to say, " This rendered it the more surprising, that recently 

 a feather should be brought to light, precisely in the same 

 formation, and even at the same spot, which furnishes the 

 greatest number of Pterodactyles. The object," he adds, 

 " occurring on the stone, agrees in all its parts so perfectly 

 with the feather of a bird, that it is impossible to distinguish it 

 therefrom." After a most minute description he concludes, 

 ' ' The fossil feather of Solenhofen, therefore, even if agreeing 

 perfectly with those of our birds, need not necessarily be de- 

 rived from a bird. And indeed a feathered animal, differing 

 essentially from our birds, has occurred in the lithographic 

 slate. My informant is M. Witte, of Hanover. This gentle- 

 man saw, in the possession of M. Haberlein, of Pappenheim, 

 •apon a slab of Solenhofen slate, an animal, of which he remarked 

 jhat it possessed feathers, and that the feathers of the tail 

 were attached, not as in birds, to the last vertebra, but on each 

 side of the caudal vertebras. They were, moreover, quite dis- 

 tinctly furnished with stem and vane. The simple tarsus of 

 itself shows that this animal does not belong to the Pterodac- 

 tyles, and the formation of the tail contradicts the idea that we 

 connect with our birds, yet the feathers are not distinguishable 

 from those of birds. The fossil feather described by me will 

 be derived from a similar animal." 



Dr. "Wagner's paper (written shortly before his death) was 

 wholly founded on report. Having, like Yon Meyer, received 

 from M. Witte, of Hanover, a description of the fossil in M. 

 Haberlein' s collection, and also read a notice of Yon Meyer's 

 feather from the same formation, he subsequently procured 



* Translated from the PalaontograpMca, yol. x. p. 53, by the same author 

 foregoing. 



A short, notice of these two papers will be found in the Intellectual 

 Obsekvee, No. 5, for June last, page 367. 



