On portions of a cranium and a jaw in the slab containing the fossil remains of the Archaeopteryx / by John Evans.

  • Evans, John, 1823-1908.
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On portions of a cranium and a jaw in the slab containing the fossil remains of the Archaeopteryx / by John Evans. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    6/18 (page 4)
    That the Archaeopteryx was provided with teeth in its jaws is established beyond all doubt by the Berlin fossil, while the important discoveries made of late years in America by Professor 0. C. Marsh * have shown that in his Sub-Class Odontornithes there are at least two separate groups of toothed birds belonging to Cretaceous times. I may here inci- dentally call attention to the striking resemblance in character between the teeth of Hesperornis t and those which I re- garded as belonging to the Archaeopteryx on the London slab, though the latter are not so much curved towards the point. The actual curvature is, however, somewhat greater than what is shown in the woodcut at page 12. Whether there are specific or even generic differences between the two Solenhofen birds preserved at London and Berlin respectively, is a question which may safely be left to Professor H. G. Seeley and others ; I may, however, take this opportunity of calling attention to a feature in the Berlin specimen which has, I think, as yet escaped comment. It is that, along the outer margin of the right tibia, there is a series of eight or possibly nine feathers of much the same character as those along the tail, and nearly, though not quite, of the same length. They appear to lie evenly one over the other, like the feathers of the tail and wings, though at a more acute angle to the bone with which they are associated. Their orderly arrangement is more clearly discernible on the slab itself, which, by the kindness of Professor Beyrich, I have had an opportunity of examining at Berlin, than it is in the photographs. Along the inner side of the leg the feathers seem to have been of a more downy character, and they have left a more confused impression on the slab. Professor C. Vogt J has spoken of the feathers on the legs as a culotte like that on the legs of falcons. I am, however, doubtful whether a thick mass of feathers like that which is usual on the legs of the accipitres would produce the same orderly impression on a slab as that presented by the fossil. The presence of these feathers on the leg is somewhat remarkable, for Professor Vogt has pointed out that the head, * Odontornithes. Newhaven, Conn., 1880. , f Harsh, op. cit., p. 15. j. Revue Scientifique, 13 Sept., 1879. Ibid,, 1880, p. 434.