{"id":1056,"date":"2009-10-09T11:38:19","date_gmt":"2009-10-09T15:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theness.com\/neurologicablog\/?p=1056"},"modified":"2009-10-09T14:02:49","modified_gmt":"2009-10-09T18:02:49","slug":"archaeopteryx-bones-dinosaur-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theness.com\/neurologicablog\/archaeopteryx-bones-dinosaur-like\/","title":{"rendered":"Archaeopteryx Bones Dinosaur-Like"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"archaeo\"I wrote a couple of weeks ago<\/a> about a new bird-dinosaur link and the new oldest bird, Anchiornis huxleyi, which took the title away from one of the iconic fossils of evolution – Archaeopteryx. A new study just published gives us some new information about Archaeopteryx. It turns out the structure of its bones was more like a dinosaur’s than a bird’s.<\/p>\n

This has led to some annoying headlines: ‘First Bird’ Not Very Bird-Like<\/a>. The new study actually does not change our thinking about Archaeopteryx – it is a basal bird, so it has some primitive bird features, and some dinosaur features. Now we know its bones were more like a dinosaur – just like its teeth and tail. This is what we would expect from a transitional species like Archaeopteryx.<\/p>\n

For background, Archaeopteryx lithographica was first discovered in 1861 – what is now called the London specimen. There are currently a total of 10 specimens<\/a> plus one separate feather (many sources I found still give the outdated number of 8 specimens, but there have been a couple more recent finds). Pictured above is the Berlin specimen.<\/p>\n

Archaeopteryx is perhaps one of the most famous fossil species because of its timing – right around the time of the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species<\/em>. Darwin’s Bulldog, T.H. Huxley, was among the first to speculate that perhaps birds evolved from dinosaurs. So the discovery of Archaeopteryx was timely confirmation of both evolution and the dino-to-bird hypothesis.<\/p>\n

It is one of the most spectacular transitional species we have. It has primitive avian features<\/a>: feathers, an opposable hallux, and a fercula (wishbone). It also seems that Archaeopteryx was able to fly. But simultaneously it has many reptilian features: it lacks a bill or beak, free rather than fused truncal vertebrae, elongated cerebral hemispheres, a long bony tail, teeth, rear-attaching skull (birds’ attach from below), abdominal ribs, and claws on three unfused digits.<\/p>\n

It also lacked some modern adaptations to flight, such as a triosseal canal, a specialized structure that enables modern birds to perform a wing flip maneuver that helps them take off from a standing start on the ground.<\/p>\n

Generally speaking, Archaeopteryx retains many more features of theropod dinosaurs than it has modern avian features, and it lacks sophisticated adaptations of flight. It was more a flying feathered dinosaur than a bird. Again – a compelling transitional species.<\/p>\n

This new study, therefore, fits right in with our current view of Archaeopteryx (which doesn’t make for splashy headlines). Looking at the bones of Archaeopteryx<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The bones from these early birds looked similar to those of same-sized dinosaurs, as they were dense with small blood vessels and bone cells that were flattened and parallel.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This implies that Archaeopteryx was slow growing, like dinosaurs, rather than fast growing like birds, which we would then infer was a later adaptation in the line that led to modern birds.<\/p>\n

The stunning evidence for the evolution of birds from dinosaurs does not stop evolution deniers, who are immune to evidence. Answers in Genesis has an article on Archaeopteryx<\/a>, and they get just about everything wrong. They grossly misrepresent the factual evidence (claiming, for example, that there is little evidence for feathered dinosaurs) and resort to their go-to logical fallacies (Archaeopteryx is just another kind of creature that God made). I will leave it to my interested readers to take it apart further – it’s a good primer on the logical fallacies of denial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about a new bird-dinosaur link and the new oldest bird, Anchiornis huxleyi, which took the title away from one of the iconic fossils of evolution – Archaeopteryx. A new study just published gives us some new information about Archaeopteryx. It turns out the structure of its bones was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[101],"class_list":["post-1056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-archaeopteryx"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t