ARCHZEOPTERYX, liekt1.-op'te-riks (Gk. cip xaios, arehoios, ancient, primitive ptcryx, wing, bird). The oldest known bird, found the Jurassic lithographic stone of Solenhofen, Bavaria. where it was discovered in MT. Tt was a creature about the size of a crow, bird-like in form, having a rather short, blunt beak, the upper jaw of which was furnished with thirteen teeth, and the lower with three teeth on each side, each planted in a separate socket. Tts most extraordinary feature, however, is a lizard-like tail of twenty vertehue, from each of which springs a pair of well-developed quill feathers. "The vertebrae of the neck and back were biconcave, the sternum seems to have been keeled, and the manus had three free digits. The tibia and fibula do not coalesce. and the former was furnished with a series of feathers (wing-quills) very similar to those of the tail." These are divisible, a- in
modern birds, into primaries and secondaries. That it was able to fly is not to be doubted; the form of its feet, also, indicate arboreal habits, and that it scrambled about, as well as made short flights, is suggested by the fact that each finger of the hand, as well as the toes, was armed with a claw. The tail must have impeded rather than assisted flight, and it is interesting to note that in later birds this cumbersome member soon became modified into substantially the present form before the Cretaceous era came to a close. (See Bums.) It was first thoroughly studied by Owen (Philosophical Transactions, T,ondon, 1863) ; later information is summarized in New ton, Dictionary of Birds, Article "Fossil Birds" (New York, 1893-96).