Chicago museum acquires new specimen of famed Archaeopteryx
Send a link to a friend
[May 07, 2024]
By Will Dunham
(Reuters) - An exquisitely preserved fossil of the earliest-known bird
Archaeopteryx, a pigeon-sized specimen revealing new anatomical details
of a creature whose 19th century discovery lent support to Charles
Darwin's ideas about evolution, has been acquired by the Field Museum in
Chicago and will go on public display.
The museum announced on Monday the acquisition of the fossil, which it
said had been in the hands of a series of private collectors since being
unearthed in southern Germany sometime before 1990. It has the
best-preserved skull, vertebral column and soft tissues of the 13 known
Archaeopteryx specimens, the museum said.
"No single specimen tells us the whole story of this animal. Most
previous specimens are incomplete, crudely prepared, and/or crushed,
limiting the data they can provide," Field Museum paleontologist Jingmai
O'Connor said. "The Chicago specimen preserves soft tissues never before
seen in any other specimen and new information about the skeleton that
help us better understand how this bird lived and its precise
relationship with non-avian dinosaurs."
Archaeopteryx lived about 150 million years ago during the Jurassic
Period. Birds evolved from small feathered dinosaurs, and are part of
the dinosaur lineage - indeed, the sole survivors from that lineage of a
mass extinction 66 million years ago caused by an asteroid striking
Earth. Archaeopteryx boasted reptilian traits like teeth, a long, bony
tail, and claws on its hands, alongside bird-like traits like wings
formed by large, asymmetrical feathers.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/May/07/images/ads/current/graue_lda_ChevySilverado4069_040824.jpg)
The fossil is nearly complete, missing only the tip of one finger,
O'Connor said. The fossilized impressions of feathers are extensive,
revealing a tract of wing feathers not preserved in the other specimens,
O'Connor added.
The fossil possesses the only complete Archaeopteryx vertebral column -
including two tiny vertebrae at the tip of the tail showing it had 24
vertebrae, one more than previously thought, O'Connor said. Another
unique feature is the scales on the bottom of Archaeopteryx's feet,
O'Connor added.
It remains in a limestone slab because of the fragility of the bones and
other features. After being delivered to Chicago in August 2022, museum
fossil preparators Akiko Shinya and Connie Van Beek spent more than
1,400 hours using tiny drills to remove rock and expose the bones and
other features.
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/050724PIX/news_g12.jpg)
A limestone slab bearing the fossil of the ancient bird
Archaeopteryx is seen at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
in this undated handout photograph. Delaney Drummond/Field
Museum/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/May/07/images/ads/current/christianchildcare_lda_042224.png)
The largest Archaeopteryx specimen is about the size of a raven.
This one is tied for the smallest.
"Archaeopteryx lived on an arid, fairly sparsely vegetated
archipelago visited by seasonal storms. It seems to have been
adapted for life on the ground, like many living birds, and we
hypothesize it was capable of only bursts of flight and perhaps
gliding down from trees," O'Connor said.
Darwin in 1859 published his theory of evolution by natural
selection. Building on the notion that organisms can change over
time, the British naturalist proposed that new species arise from
earlier ones and that species best adapted to their environment are
more likely to survive and pass on the genes underpinning their
success.
The "gravest objection" to his theory, Darwin noted, was the lack at
the time of fossils of transitional forms. The 1861 discovery in
Bavaria of Archaeopteryx, combining reptile-like and bird-like
features, provided support for Darwin's theory.
"I think it's amazing how one fossil can teach us so much. This one
fossil taxon showed us birds are dinosaurs, helped to prove natural
selection as a mechanism for evolution, and still remains after
160-plus years one of the most researched and important fossil
species of all time," O'Connor said.
The museum - already home to the skeleton of Sue, perhaps the
biggest and best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex - did not disclose the
price paid for the Archaeopteryx fossil. From Tuesday it will go on
display for about a month, then return later in a permanent exhibit.
A 2015 German law requires newly discovered Archaeopteryx fossils to
stay in Germany. This specimen was sold outside of Germany in 1990,
meaning it was already out of the country before that statute was
passed, the museum said.
(Reporting by Will Dunham in Washington, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)
[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |