Perhaps the most famous example is _Archaeopteryx_
found in a series of slates in Germany. This animal is at once a
feathered, flying reptile, and a primitive bird with countless reptilian
structures. Its short head possesses lizard-like jaws, all of which bear
teeth; its wings comprise five clawed digits; its tail is composed of a
long series of joints or vertebrae, bearing large feathers in pairs; its
breastbone is flat and like a plate, thus resembling that of reptiles and
differing markedly from the great keeled breastbone of modern flying
birds, whose large muscles have necessitated the development of the keel
for purposes of firm attachment. In brief, this animal was close to the
point where reptiles and birds parted company in evolution, and although
it was a primitive bird, it is in a true sense a "missing link" between
reptiles and the group of modern birds. Other fossil forms like
_Hesperornis_ and _Ichthyornis_, whose remains occur in the strata of a
later date, fill in the gap between _Archaeopteryx_ and the birds at the
present time, for among other things they possess teeth which indicate
their origin from forms like _Archaeopteryx_, while in other respects they
are far nearer the birds of later epochs.
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