Reconstruction of Archaeopteryx albersdoerferi. Image credit: Zhao Chuang / Martin Kundrát
Posted on 10/28/2018 11:12:45 AM PDT by ETL
Using synchrotron microtomography, Dr. Kundrát and colleagues examined one of 12 Archaeopteryx specimens, known as ‘specimen number eight.’
“This Archaeopteryx individual is physically much closer to a modern bird than it is to a reptile,” the paleontologists said.
“Therefore, it is evolutionary distinctive and different enough to be described as a new species — Archaeopteryx albersdoerferi.”
Some of the differing skeletal characteristics of Archaeopteryx albersdoerferi include the fusion of cranial bones, different pectoral girdle (chest) and wing elements, and a reinforced configuration of carpals and metacarpals (hand) bones.
These characteristics are seen more in modern flying birds and are not found in the older Archaeopteryx lithographica species, which more resembles reptiles and dinosaurs.
Specimen number eight is the youngest of all the 12 known specimens by approximately half a million years. This age difference in comparison to the other specimens is a key factor in describing it as a new species.
“By digitally dissecting the fossil we found that this specimen differed from all of the others,” said co-author Dr. John Nudds, from the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Manchester.
“It possessed skeletal adaptations which would have resulted in much more efficient flight.”
“In a nutshell we have discovered what Archaeopteryx lithographica evolved into — i.e. a more advanced bird, better adapted to flying — and we have described this as a new species of Archaeopteryx.”
“This is the first time that numerous bones and teeth of Archaeopteryx were viewed from all aspects including exposure of their inner structure,” Dr. Kundrát said.
“The use of synchrotron microtomography was the only way to study the specimen as it is heavily compressed with many fragmented bones partly or completely hidden in limestone.”
(Excerpt) Read more at sci-news.com ...
Paleontologists view Archaeopteryx as a transitional fossil between dinosaurs and modern birds. With its blend of avian and reptilian features, it was long viewed as the earliest known bird. Discovered in 1860 in Germany, it's sometimes referred to as Urvogel, the German word for "original bird" or "first bird." Recent discoveries, however, have displaced Archaeopteryx from its lofty title.
Archaeopteryx is a combination of two ancient Greek words: archaīos, meaning "ancient," and ptéryx, meaning "feather" or "wing." There are two species of Archaeopteryx: A. lithographica and A. siemensii.
Archaeopteryx lived around 150 million years ago — during the early Tithonian stage in the late Jurassic Period — in what is now Bavaria, southern Germany. At the time, Europe was an archipelago and was much closer to the equator than it is today, with latitude similar to Florida, providing this basal bird, or "stem-bird," with a fairly warm — though likely dry — climate.
Could it fly?
Weighing in at 1.8 lbs. to 2.2 lbs. (0.8 to 1 kilogram), Archaeopteryx was about the size of the common raven (Corvus corax), according to a 2009 article in the journal PLOS ONE. It had broad wings with rounded ends and a tail that was long for its body length, which was up to 20 inches (50 centimeters) in total.
Various specimens of Archaeopteryx showed that it had flight and tail feathers, and the well-preserved "Berlin Specimen" showed the animal also had body plumage that included well-developed "trouser" feathers on the legs. Its body plumage was down-like and fluffy like those of the feathered theropod Sinosauropteryx, and may have even been "hair-like proto-feathers" that resemble the fur on mammals, according to a 2004 article in the journal Comptes Rendus Palevol.
Interestingly, the Archaeopteryx specimens found thus far lack any feathering on the upper neck and head, which may be a result of the preservation process.
Based on its wings and feathers, scientists believe Archaeopteryx likely had some aerodynamic abilities.
"The contour feathers in the wing and on the side of the tails of Archaeopteryx have an asymmetric shape, which is usually related to a higher aerodynamic performance," Christian Foth, a paleontologist at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, told Live Science. "Thus, it is very likely that Archaeopteryx could fly, but it is hard to judge if it was a flapper or a glider."
Archaeopteryx had a primitive shoulder girdle that likely limited its flapping abilities, but it also probably lived in areas without big trees for gliding, and its claw structure suggests it probably didn't climb often or perch on trees. "Therefore, we think that it could perform a simple flapping flight over a very short distance, maybe in relation to hunting or escape behavior," Foth said.
A 2018 study published in the journal Nature Communications also found evidence that Archaeopteryx could fly, although not like any bird alive today does. The researchers used synchrotron microtomography — a tool that uses radiation to make magnified, 3D digital reconstructions of an object — to study the Jurassic creature's fossils. Even though Archaeopteryx didn't have the same features in its shoulders that help modern birds fly, its wings looked like those of modern birds that fly, they found.
"Data analysis furthermore demonstrated that the bones of Archaeopteryx plot closest to those of birds like pheasants that occasionally use active flight to cross barriers or dodge predators, but not to those of gliding and soaring forms such as many birds of prey and some seabirds that are optimized for enduring flight," study co-researcher Emmanuel de Margerie, a researcher at The National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Toulouse, France, said in a statement.
Given that Archaeopteryx is the oldest flying member of the avialan lineage on record, it's likely that "active dinosaurian flight had evolved even earlier," study co-researcher Stanislav Bureš, a researcher at Palacký University in the Czech Republic.
Other research, presented at the 2016 Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting in Salt Lake City, found that Archaeopteryx would have been able to fly without running first on the ground, Live Science reported. ..."
From the article...
Archaeopteryx was first described as the ‘missing link’ between reptiles and birds in 1861 — and is now regarded as the link between dinosaurs and birds.
Only 12 specimens have ever been found and all are from the late Jurassic of Bavaria, Germany, dating back approximately 150 million years.
Now, Dr. Martin Kundrát from the University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik and co-authors have identified a new species of Archaeopteryx — named A. albersdoerferi — that is closer to modern birds in evolutionary terms.
I recall hearing on the news as a young kid here in New York that a dinosaur had been discovered in nearby New Jersey or Connecticut and being afraid to sleep, thinking it was going to climb through our window while we were asleep.
Or it may have had a featherless head and neck like the modern vulture.
I could see it having a niche as a carrion feeder, munching on the dead critters, and being able to fly away when bigger dinosaurs came by.
Cherodactyl?
FWIT...
“The Archaeopteryx specimens come from the Solnholfen lithographic limestones.
The Solnhofen limestones formed in the oxygen-starved waters at the bottom of a lagoon.
The absence of oxygen meant that there were few scavengers there, so if a bird happened to die in the lagoon and then sink, it would lay there at the bottom without being disturbed.
They would be slowly buried in an ooze of tiny limestone grains, which were produced by plankton called coccolithophores.
As the limestone entombed the bird, layer by layer it formed a mold around the feathers and hardened, preserving minute details of feather structure and arrangement. ...”
https://sites.google.com/site/longrich/archaeopteryx-lithographica
*ping*
The first dinosaurs to fly were not very good at it but, once they could truly fly, they were much more successful than the parent genus. As flying became critical while the mechanics of feathered flight were not yet perfected, the selection pressure for mutations that perfected feathered flight were enormous and lead to explosive evolution in a very short time frame leading to a lack of fossils.
God's plan for life just proceeding along.
Dont ever want to meet a flying raptor. Birds are cool though.
You are entitled to hold that opinion, but it is an unverifiable hypothesis. You state as fact something that is supposition.
When a Christian does that, it is correctly called faith.
Who says I'm not a Christian? When is reads in Genesis that it took six days for God to create the universe does it exactly quantify how long those days where to God?
In the New King James version of the Bible more on the sixth day God created the animals it does not say how they were created, does it?:
24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, land crawlers, and wild animals according to their kinds.” And it was so.
25 God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that crawls upon the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.
There is no mention of how animals were created: nothing about using an Easy Bake oven, animal creation machine made out of diamond and mother-of-pearl, or an angel crapping them out. Nothing.
God gave us our senses and intellect to pursue the truth that is woven throughout the wonder of his creation.
Thanks fieldmarshaldj. This fossil's written in paleontology, just like the older Archaeopteryx, doo doo doo.
Thanks fieldmarshaldj. This fossil's written in paleontology, just like the older Archaeopteryx, doo doo doo.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
