This Dinosaur Had Feathers and Probably Flew Like a Chicken
In 1861, scientists discovered Archaeopteryx, a dinosaur with feathers, in 150 million-year-old limestones in Solnhofen, Germany. They didn't know it at the time, but that fossilized skeleton — and the several that followed — provided a key piece of evidence for the theory of evolution, as well as for the fact that birds were actually dinosaurs.
Since then, researchers have pored over every detail of available specimens, trying to puzzle out how birds came to fly. So you might expect that such a well-studied fossil species wouldn't be capable of surprises. But in a new paper, a team led by Jingmai O'Connor, a paleontologist at the Field Museum in Chicago, revealed previously unrecorded soft tissues and skeletal details from a new specimen, known as the Chicago Archaeopteryx. What they found also helps explain why some feathered dinosaurs got off the ground, if only for short-haul flights.
Many Archaeopteryx specimens are too flattened by geology to discern important skeletal details. The latest specimen, acquired by the Field Museum in 2022, let O'Connor's team address some of the anatomical uncertainties.
Unlike other specimens, the bones of the Chicago Archaeopteryx were preserved in three dimensions, allowing the researchers to better evaluate the skull's palate. That showed the earliest signs of an evolutionary trajectory toward the skulls of modern birds. In another accident of fossilization, the carcass's wings were separated from the body, leaving them 'pristinely preserved.' The team confirmed that rather than having two layers of wing feathers, Archaeopteryx actually had three. In modern birds, that third layer helps link the shorter forearm to the body to create a continuous lift surface, which allows for sustained flight. — ASHER ELBEIN / NYT
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Observer
3 days ago
- Observer
This Dinosaur Had Feathers and Probably Flew Like a Chicken
In 1861, scientists discovered Archaeopteryx, a dinosaur with feathers, in 150 million-year-old limestones in Solnhofen, Germany. They didn't know it at the time, but that fossilized skeleton — and the several that followed — provided a key piece of evidence for the theory of evolution, as well as for the fact that birds were actually dinosaurs. Since then, researchers have pored over every detail of available specimens, trying to puzzle out how birds came to fly. So you might expect that such a well-studied fossil species wouldn't be capable of surprises. But in a new paper, a team led by Jingmai O'Connor, a paleontologist at the Field Museum in Chicago, revealed previously unrecorded soft tissues and skeletal details from a new specimen, known as the Chicago Archaeopteryx. What they found also helps explain why some feathered dinosaurs got off the ground, if only for short-haul flights. Many Archaeopteryx specimens are too flattened by geology to discern important skeletal details. The latest specimen, acquired by the Field Museum in 2022, let O'Connor's team address some of the anatomical uncertainties. Unlike other specimens, the bones of the Chicago Archaeopteryx were preserved in three dimensions, allowing the researchers to better evaluate the skull's palate. That showed the earliest signs of an evolutionary trajectory toward the skulls of modern birds. In another accident of fossilization, the carcass's wings were separated from the body, leaving them 'pristinely preserved.' The team confirmed that rather than having two layers of wing feathers, Archaeopteryx actually had three. In modern birds, that third layer helps link the shorter forearm to the body to create a continuous lift surface, which allows for sustained flight. — ASHER ELBEIN / NYT
Observer
19-05-2025
- Observer
Chicago museum's fossil yields insights on famed early bird Archaeopteryx
A new analysis of a pigeon-sized Archaeopteryx fossil in the collection of the Field Museum in Chicago is revealing an array of previously unknown features of the earliest-known bird, providing insight into its feathers, hands, feet and head. The specimen, unearthed in southern Germany, is one of the most complete and best preserved of the 14 known fossils of Archaeopteryx identified since 1861. The discovery of the first Archaeopteryx fossil, with its blend of reptile-like and bird-like features, caused a sensation, lending support to British naturalist Charles Darwin's ideas about evolution and showing that birds had descended from dinosaurs. The new study, examining the Chicago fossil using UV light to make out soft tissues and CT scans to discern minute details still embedded in the rock, shows that 164 years later there is more to learn about this celebrated creature that took flight 150 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. The researchers identified anatomical traits indicating that while Archaeopteryx was capable of flight, it probably spent a lot of time on the ground and may have been able to climb trees. The scientists identified for the first time in an Archaeopteryx fossil the presence of specialized feathers called tertials on both wings. These innermost flight feathers of the wing are attached to the elongated humerus bone in the upper arm. Birds evolved from small feathered dinosaurs, which lacked tertials. The discovery of them in Archaeopteryx, according to the researchers, suggests that tertials, present in many birds today, evolved specifically for flight. Feathered dinosaurs lacking tertials would have had a gap between the feathered surface of their upper arms and the body. "To generate lift, the aerodynamic surface must be continuous with the body. So in order for flight using feathered wings to evolve, dinosaurs had to fill this gap - as we see in Archaeopteryx," said Field Museum paleontologist Jingmai O'Connor, lead author of the study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature. "Although we have studied Archaeopteryx for over 160 years, so much basic information is still controversial. Is it a bird? Could it fly? The presence of tertials supports the interpretation that the answer to both these questions is 'yes,'" O'Connor added. The delicate specimen, preserved in three dimensions rather than squashed flat like many fossils, was painstakingly prepared to protect soft tissue remains, which glowed under ultraviolet light. Birds are the only members of the dinosaur lineage to have survived a mass extinction 66 million years ago, caused by an asteroid striking Earth. Archaeopteryx boasted reptilian traits like teeth, a long and bony tail, and claws on its hands, alongside bird-like traits like wings formed by large, asymmetrical feathers. The soft tissue of its toe pads appears to have been adapted for spending a lot of its life on the ground, consistent with the limited flight capabilities that Archaeopteryx is believed to have possessed. "That's not to say it couldn't perch. It could do so still pretty well. But the point being that near the beginning of powered flight, Archaeopteryx was still spending most of its time on the ground," said study co-author Alex Clark, a doctoral student in evolutionary biology at the University of Chicago and the Field Museum. The soft tissue on the hand suggests that the first and third fingers were mobile and could be used for climbing. An examination of Archaeopteryx's palate - roof of the mouth - confirmed that its skull was immobile, unlike many living birds. But there was skeletal evidence of the first stages in the evolution of a trait that lets the beak move independently from the braincase, as seen in modern birds. 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. The museum last year announced the acquisition of the fossil, which it said had been in the hands of a series of private collectors since being unearthed sometime before 1990. "This specimen is arguably the best Archaeopteryx ever found and we're learning a ton of new things from it," O'Connor said. "I consider Archaeopteryx to be the most important fossil species of all time. It is, after all, the icon of evolution, and evolution is the unifying concept of the biological sciences. Not only is Archaeopteryx the oldest-known fossil bird, with birds today being the most successful lineage of land vertebrates, it is the species that demonstrates that birds are living dinosaurs," O'Connor said. —Reuters
Observer
05-05-2025
- Observer
A Roman Gladiator and a Lion Met in Combat. Only One Walked Away.
Gladiators battled lions and other wild animals in the arenas of the Roman Empire. But for all the tales of combat depicted in ancient texts, marble reliefs and mosaics, and then retold in movies and other modern media, archaeologists have never found direct physical evidence, such as skeletons of gladiators bearing animal-induced wounds. At last, proof of classical combat between man and beast has been found in the form of a skeleton from a Roman settlement in Britain. The skeleton was discovered 20 years ago, in an excavation spurred by a couple hoping to renovate the yard of their home in the English city of York. An initial survey turned up evidence of an ancient cemetery, halting the construction plans. 'Britain is rich with Roman archaeology,' said Tim Thompson, an anthropologist at Maynooth University in Ireland and an author of a paper that describes the discovery in the journal PLOS One. 'You pretty much can't shove a spade in the ground without hitting something ancient and archaeological.' The larger site contained the buried remains of more than 80 individuals, and many of their bodies showed signs of trauma. The demographics of the deceased, the types of injuries in their bones and the manner in which they were interred suggested that they had fought as gladiators about 1,800 years ago, when what is now York was an outpost of the Roman Empire. One skeleton in particular, identified by researchers as 6DT19, had unusual wounds: small indentations in the hip bones. Other researchers had noted that these notches looked like bite marks from a large animal, perhaps a lion. To determine if the indentations of 6DT19's hip really were bite marks, Thompson and his colleagues first had to collect data on what the bite marks of large mammals look like. For that, they made a somewhat unusual request of several British zoos: a chance to examine their lions' leftovers. By shining a grid of light on the bones gnawed on by zoo animals, the researchers created a map of the dimensions and depth of the animals' bites. They then created a map of 6DT19's hip bones and compared the bite marks left by the different animals with the indentations on the skeleton. Sure enough, the Roman combatant's injuries were best explained by a lion's bite. However, the hip bite probably isn't what killed 6DT19. 'We think the individual was incapacitated in some way, and then the animal came along, bit and dragged the body away,' Thompson said. — KATE GOLEMBIEWSKI /NYT
