Archaeopteryx and Evolution
Without a doubt one of the most important discoveries in palaeontology was the discovery of a small, isoltaed feather belonging to Archaeopteryx. Found in 1860 in the beautiful Solnhofen Limestones of Bavaria in southern Germany, this was the evidence Charles Darwin needed to put together his theory of evolution. Better still, a year later, a complete skeleton of Archaeopteryx lithographica (named after the characteristic limestones) was found, and proved that strange reptile-like birds lived in the Jurassic. It was obtained by Richard Owen for the Natural History Museum in 1862 and has since become known as the 'London' specimen, subsequently being described by both Owen and Alfred Wagner, a German palaeontologist. Neither men recognised the evolutionary implications of the specimens, perhaps because they themselves did not accept evolution as a viable process.
It was Thomas Henry Huxley who first compared the skeleton with a group of dinosaurs known as the theropods. He provided a wealth of evidence to support his claim through comparing Archaeopteryx with another Solnhofen gem, Compsognathus, a small theropod.
Since then, a further six specimens have been found, most famously the 'Berlin Specimen' (pictured left) found in 1877. Archaeopteryx lost most of its attention after the 1850-60s as palaeontologists in America began finding rich fossil grounds, packed with new and incredibly species (see American Bone Rush). It wasn't until John Ostrom's work began that the true implications of a reptile-bird link were realised. Ostrom's 1970 paper comparing his newly discovered Deinonychus (1964) and Archaeopteryx was a landmark. The paper also led to a specimen mislabelled as Pterodactylus crassipes of the Teylers Museum of the Netherlands being revealed as actually an Archaeopteryx.The evidence in the paper was overwhelming, but still palaeontologists of the time resisted the idea. It was not until recently, and the discovery of the feathered dinosaurs of Liaoning were made, that his ideas have truly started to be taken seriously.
See American Bone Rush
Recent Discoveries
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'Berlin' Specimen of Archaeopteryx