{"id":243781,"date":"2025-05-15T22:32:31","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T22:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/aerospace\/the-famous-feathered-dinosaur-archaeopteryx-could-fly-suggests-new-study-of-a-beautifully-preserved-fossil\/"},"modified":"2025-05-15T22:32:31","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T22:32:31","slug":"the-famous-feathered-dinosaur-archaeopteryx-could-fly-suggests-new-study-of-a-beautifully-preserved-fossil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=243781","title":{"rendered":"The Famous, Feathered Dinosaur Archaeopteryx Could Fly, Suggests New Study of a ‘Beautifully Preserved’ Fossil"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The Chicago Archaeopteryx features more soft tissue and delicate skeletal details than any known fossil of its kind, and paleontologists discovered it has a set of feathers key to flight in modern birds<\/h2>\n
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Margherita Bassi<\/a><\/p>\n

– Daily Correspondent<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Chicago Archaeopteryx<\/em>, seen under UV light, shows soft tissues alongside the skeleton.
\n Delaney Drummond<\/span>
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Archaeopteryx<\/em>\u2014a small, feathered dinosaur that lived<\/a> around 150 million years ago\u2014changed how humans understand the world, \u201cmaybe more than any other fossil,\u201d as Jingmai O\u2019Connor<\/a>, a paleontologist at Chicago\u2019s Field Museum, tells the New York Times<\/em><\/a>\u2019 Asher Elbein.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because fossils of Archaeopteryx<\/em>, which are considered<\/a> by many<\/a> to be the oldest known birds, \u201cproved Darwin right\u201d by confirming that all birds are dinosaurs, according to a Field Museum statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thanks to an exceptionally preserved and prepared fossil named the Chicago Archaeopteryx<\/em> recently acquired by the Field Museum<\/a>, O\u2019Connor and her colleagues have revealed more crucial insight into the species\u2014including that it likely could fly. They detailed their work in a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature<\/em><\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

As the Field Museum\u2019s preparators worked on the pigeon-sized Chicago Archaeopteryx<\/em>, they realized that the fossil included more soft tissues and delicate skeletal details than any other known Archaeopteryx<\/em> specimen. From previous fossils, they already knew the dinosaur had asymmetric feathers<\/a>, which are vital to creating thrust in modern, flying birds. But the hard slab of limestone around this specimen had also preserved a key layer of feathers called tertials that had never been documented before in Archaeopteryx<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important that this is the first time these feathers have been seen,\u201d John Nudds<\/a>, a paleontologist at the University of Manchester in England who didn\u2019t participate in the study, tells the Guardian<\/em><\/a>\u2019s Hannah Devlin. \u201cThese new feathers seen in this beautifully preserved specimen\u2014as well as the asymmetric feathers\u2014confirms it could fly.\u201d<\/p>\n

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An illustration shows an Archaeopteryx<\/em> with tertial feathers that might have helped it to fly.<\/p>\n

Michael Rothman<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In modern birds, tertial feathers are crucial to flight, because they cover the space between the bird\u2019s body and its wings. Without them, wings can\u2019t generate lift. In fact, flightless feathered dinosaurs closely related to birds, but not quite birds themselves, didn\u2019t have tertial feathers, according to the statement. Their wing feathers ended at their elbows.<\/p>\n

While paleontologists don\u2019t know exactly when feathered, landbound dinosaurs gained the ability to fly, most scholars agree that Archaeopteryx<\/em> is the earliest known bird. \u201cPeople hypothesized that [the animal] probably had tertials,\u201d O\u2019Connor tells Science News<\/em><\/a>\u2019 Carolyn Gramling. Not only does the Chicago Archaeopteryx<\/em> finally confirm this hypothesis, but it also indicates that tertials could have played an important evolutionary role in the development of feathered flight, she adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cArchaeopteryx<\/em> isn\u2019t the first dinosaur to have feathers, or the first dinosaur to have \u2018wings.\u2019 But we think it\u2019s the earliest known dinosaur that was able to use its feathers to fly,\u201d O\u2019Connor says in the statement. That\u2019s despite the fact that \u201cby modern standards, it was a very poor flyer,\u201d she adds to Science News<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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The Chicago Archaeopteryx<\/em>\u00a0is housed at the Field Museum.<\/p>\n

Delaney Drummond \/ Field Museum<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Other notable features the researchers documented include bones in the roof of the animal\u2019s mouth, which provide insight into its skull; scales on the bottom of its toes, which suggest it still spent a lot of time on the ground; and soft tissue on its hands. This last feature indicates that \u201cthe third digit could move independently, supporting long abandoned claims from the \u201990s that Archaeopteryx<\/em> could use its hands to climb,\u201d O\u2019Connor explains to Gizmodo<\/em><\/a>\u2019s Isaac Schultz.<\/p>\n

The team was able to reveal so many telling details thanks to their meticulous fossil preparation, which they conducted with the help of CT scanning and ultraviolet light to make sure they didn\u2019t mistake any part of the fossil for rock and accidentally remove it.<\/p>\n

A fossil collector discovered the Chicago Archaeopteryx<\/em> sometime before 1990 in limestone deposits near Solnhofen, Germany, where all known Archaeopteryx<\/em> fossils originate. It was privately owned until the Field Museum\u2019s purchase.<\/p>\n

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