The Big Dinosaur Podcast

In our 104th episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with Ari Rudenko, an experimental dance choreographer and director, whose latest work is PARA / AVIS Dancing with Dinosaurs. You can see Ari’s work on his Youtube channel or on his Facebook page.

Episode 104 is also about Archaeopteryx, a very early feathered dinosaur.

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Archaeopteryx on display at the Natural History Museum in Oslo, Norway

In this episode, we discuss:

• The dinosaur of the day: Archaeopteryx
• Sometimes referred to its German name Urvogel (means “original bird” or “first bird”)
• Name means “ancient feather” or “ancient wing”
• Bird-like dinosaur, transitional between non-avian feathered dinosaurs and modern birds
• For a long time (between late 19th century and early 21st century) it was thought to be the oldest known bird (now that title may belong to others, such as Anchiornis, Xiaotingia, and Aurornis
• Type species is Archaeopteryx lithographica
• Two main species: Archaeopteryx lithographica and Archaeopteryx siemensii (based on a review of all specimens in 2007), though there have been dozens of species names published
• Lived in the late Jurassic in what is now Germany
• Named in 1861 based on a single feather, then later that year the first complete specimen was announced
• 12 specimens have been found, all near Solnhofen, Germany, and most of them have impressions of feathers (advanced, flight feathers, which shows that feathers began evolving before the Late Jurassic)
• Hermann von Meyer described the single feather that was found in 1860-1861. That feather is now at the Humboldt Museum fur Naturkunde in Berlin
• However, that feather may actually belong to another species, since it looks a bit different from other specimens
• The first skeleton is known as the London Specimen, and was found in 1861 in Germany, and given to local physician Karl Häberlein in return for medical services. He sold it for 700 pounds to the Natural History Museum in London, where it still is today.
• Richard Owen described it as Archaeopteryx macrura in 1863 (it’s missing most of its head and neck), and said it may not be the same species as the feather
  Archaeopteryx became a synonym to Archaeopteryx lithographica (which referred the the single feather Meyer described) in 1951 when Gavin de Beer treated the London Specimen (previously named Archaeopteryx macrura, as the holotype) instead of the one with just the feather. Swinton backed him up in 1960.
• In 2007 two groups of scientists petitioned the ICZN that the London Specimen be the holotype or neotype so that all species keep the Archaeopteryx name (since the original feather seems to have different sizes and proportions and may belong to another theropod where only the feather is known). After four years, the London Specimen was designated the neotype in 2011
• When the ICZN ruled in favor of the neotype, they suppressed alternative names for Archaeopteryx so they became synonyms
• Some scientists think all specimens belong to Archaeopteryx lithographica. There are some differences, but some think it’s because of different ages of the specimens, instead of diversity
• Jakob Niemeyer discovered the Berlin Specimen in 1874 or 1875, then sold the fossil to buy a cow in 1876 to Johann Dörr, an innkeeper, who sold it to Ernst Otto Häberlein, the son of K. Häberlein
• It went on sale between 1877 and 1881, and the Humboldt Museum fur Naturkunde bought it for 20,000 goldmark
• It’s the most complete specimen and was described in 1884 by Wilhelm Dames (first one found with a complete head). Dames named it a new species, Archaeopteryx siemensii, in 1897 (often seen as a synonym of Archaeopteryx lithographica, though several recent studies have found it to be a distinct species)
• Maxberg Specimen, which is just a torso, was found in 1956 and described by Florian Heller in 1959 (missing a head and tail, and once was on exhibit at Maxberg Museum in Solnhofen but is now missing. Eduard Opitsch owned it and loaned it to the museum until 1974, then when he died it 1991 it was found to be missing (stolen or sold)
• Haarlem Specimen, a.k.a. Teyler Specimen, was found in 1855. Meyer described it as Pterodactylus crassipes in 1857, but John Ostrom reclassified it in 1970 (first specimen found, but incorrectly classified). Now it’s at the Teylers Museum in the Netherlands. Consists of only limb bones, cervical vertebrae, and ribs
  Eichstätt Specimen was found in 1951. Peter Wellhnofer described it in 1974, and it’s now at the Jura Museum in Germany. May possibly be a different genus (Jurapteryx recurva) or species (Archaeopteryx recurva)
• Solnhofen Specimen was found in the 1970s. Peter Wellnhofer described it in 1988. Originally it was classified as Compsognathus. It’s the largest specimen known and may be a different genus, Wellnhoferia grandis
• Munich Specimen was found in 1992. Peter Wellnhofer described it in 1993. It’s at the Paläontologisches Museum in Munich and only the front of the face is missing
• Daiting Specimen was found in 1990. It was on display at the Munich Mineral Show in 2009. It may be a new species, since it was found in a limestone bed a few hundred thousand years younger than other specimens
• Bürgermeister-Müller Specimen was found in 2000 and is known as the “chicken wing” because it’s a fragment of a single wing
• Thermopolis Specimen was described in 2005 and donated to the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis, Wyoming. It shows Archaeopteryx did not have a reversed toe (which birds have) so it would not have been easy to perch on branches and may have had a more terrestrial or trunk-climbing lifestyle (evidence of theropod ancestry). Gregory Paul said he found evidence of a hyperextensible second toe in 1988 but this wasn’t widely accepted until the Thermopolis Specimen, which was named Archaeopteryx siemensii in 2007
• The 11th specimen doesn’t yet have a name but was announced in 2011 and described in 2014 and is privately owned
• A 12th specimen was found in 2010 and announced in 2014, though hasn’t yet been formally described
• Considered to be a link between birds and non-avian dinosaurs
• Archaeopteryx type specimen was found two years after Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, and seemed to confirm Darwin’s theories and be evidence for the origin of birds
• Darwin wrote, “The fossil Bird with the long tail and fingers to its wings is by far the greatest fossil of recent times.”
• Johann Andreas Wagner, an anti-evolutionist, proposed in the 1860s the name Archaeopteryx should be Griphosaurus problematicus (problematic Griffin lizard) because he thought Darn and others would use the name Archaeopteryx “as justification of their strange views upon the transition of animals”
• Thomas Huxley said in 1868 Archaeopteryx was an evolutionary link between birds and dinosaurs
• People forgot about this with Gerhard Heilmann’s The Origin of Birds in 1926 which said thecodonts were the ancestors of birds (they’re now considered obsolete taxonomic grouping)
• John Ostrom (following Huxley in 1868) argued in the 1970s that birds evolved from dinosaurs and that Archaeopteryx was similar to dromaeosaurids
• John Ostrom brought back the idea of the link between birds and dinosaurs when he described Deinonychus in 1969. In 1970 he analyzed Pterodactyls crassipes and renamed it Archaeopteryx (the Haarlem Specimen). He saw the relationship between Deinonychus and Archaeopteryx, and started the “Dinosaur Renaissance”
• Archaeopteryx feathers were similar to modern day bird feathers
• May have been diurnal, like most modern birds
• But did not have a reversed toe, like birds (2005 study)
• Probably wasn’t the first ancestor of birds
• Not a true ancestor of modern birds, but a close relative of that ancestor (still, often used as a model)
• In 2011, the discovery of Xiaotingia, a close relative, led to suggesting Archaeopteryx was a deinonychosaur instead of an avialan, and not a “bird”. But a more thorough analysis soon after found Archaeopteryx to be at the base of Avialae, and Xiaotingia to be a basal dromaeosaurid or troodontid, though the authors of that study said there are still uncertainties
• In 2012, Senter, Turner, Makovicky, and Norell found that Archaeopteryx was more closely related to modern birds than dromaeosaurids and troodontids. But in 2013 Godefroit found Archaeopteryx to be more closely related to dromaeosaurids and troodontids, based on the description of Eosinopteryx brevipenna
• In 2013 Agnolin and Novas said Archaeopteryx and the possibly synonymous Wellnhoferia were the basalmost avialans
• Archaeopteryx had feathers
• Feathers may have been used for insulation or possibly flight
• Some feather traces in the Berlin specimen are similar to Sinosauropteryx, which may have looked more like fur than feathers in life (though their microscopic structure is different)
• No feathers on the upper neck and head, though that may be the way it was preserved
• Feathers on the head and neck may have come loose when the body rubbed against the sea bed before it was buried, or the neck and head was mostly underwater when it floated to the survey (found in marine sediments) so the skin may have softened and the feathers may have come loose
• In 1985, Fred Hoyle, Lee Spetner, and others claimed the feathers of the Berlin and London Specimens were forged, based on misinterpreting the fossils and not knowing the process of lithification. They also said other Archaeopteryx specimens did not have feathers, which was also incorrect. They also said the motives for the forgery were because Richard Owen wanted to support Darwin’s theory of evolution, which is not likely because of Owen’s own views. The other possibility is Own wanted to discredit Darwin by setting a trap for him, but Owen wrote a detailed paper on the London Specimen, so this is also not likely
• Ryan Carney and colleagues did a color study of Archaeopteryx in 2011, using X-ray analysis, and detected the structure of melanosomes in the single-feather specimen that was described in 1861. They then compared it to 87 modern bird species and found it was probably the color black. This doesn’t mean Archaeopteryx was completely black, but may have just partly covered the primary feathers on the wings
• May have had complex colors, irridescent patterns (based on basal birds and theropods)
• A study in 2013 further analyzed the feathers and found it may have had dark and light colored feathers, and the tips of the flight feathers would have been mostly black, though later this was found to be incorrect and that the single feather specimen was black with a darker tip
• Archaeopteryx‘s flight feathers were asymmetrical and it had broad tail feathers, which means its feathers could give it lift but it’s not clear if Archaeopteryx flapped or glided
• Philip Senter in 2006 found that Archaeopteryx could not flap but may have “used a downstroke only flap assisted gliding technique”
• In 2010, Robert Nudds and Gareth Dyke analyzed the primary feathers of Confuciusornis and Archaeopteryx and found they couldn’t flap in flight, but Phil Currie and Luis Chiappe disagreed. Currie said they probably could fly to some extent, since they were found in what was marine or lake sediments, so they could have flown over deep water. Gregory Paul also disagreed, and said that Nudds and Dyke overestimated the mass of Confuciusornia and Archaeopteryx. But Nudd and Dyke stood by their conclusions. One possibility is they didn’t truly fly, but instead their wings gave them extra lift while running over water (like the basilisk lizard)
• Flightless birds tend to have symmetrical feathers, and Archaeopteryx feathers were asymmetrical (though some flightless birds have asymmetrical feathers as well)
• In 2004, scientists did a detailed CT scan of an Archaeopteryx brain case and found it was larger than most dinosaurs, and was big enough to fly (had good vision, hearing, and muscle coordination, as well as an inner ear structure that was more similar to modern birds than to non-avian reptiles
• Archaeopteryx did not have a bony breastplate, so it was not a strong flier, though flight muscles may have attached to the wishbone, coracoids or sternum
• Had relatively large wings, so it would have been slow and not had a big turning radius. Also had hind wings that may have helped it be more mobile and fly through trees and brush
• Some scientists think Archaeopteryx is a semi-arboreal animal that climbed (based on the “trees down” hypothesis by Marsh that birds evolved from tree-dwelling gliders)
• Some scientists think Archaeopteryx ran quickly on the ground (based on the “ground up” hypothesis by Samuel Wendell Williston that birds evolved from flight by running)
• Others think Archaeopteryx lived in the trees and on the ground, though it didn’t seem to have any features to specialize in running or perching
• In 2002, Elzanowski said Archaeopteryx may have used its wings to get away from predators and glided with some downstrokes to get to higher trees or go farther by gliding down from cliffs or trees
• Probably lived on islands surround by shallow seas and lagoons, with some cycads and conifers (not many tall trees), but plants may have been large enough for gliding from
• Where Archaeopteryx specimens were found did not have many trees when Archaeopteryx lived, so may not have climbed large trees (though that doesn’t mean it didn’t have an arboreal lifestyle, it may have lived in low shrubs)
• Similar to dromaeosaurids and troodontids, had sharp teeth, three fingers with claws, a long bony tail, feathers, and a killing claw on its second toe, which it could keep off the ground when running
• Probably hunted small prey, using its jaws or claws
• About the size of a raven, with a long tail
• Grew to be about 1 ft 8 in (0.5 m) long
• Took 2 years and 8 months to grow to adult size, based on 2009 study (slow growth compared to other primitive birds)
• In 2009 Erickson, Norell, Zhongue and others estimated that Archaeopteryx grew slowly compared to modern birds, assuming all known Archaeopteryx specimens were juveniles. If true, this would be similar to the kiwi bird, and Archaeopteryx and kiwis may have similar basal metabolic rates
• Kiwi birds can take five years to reach maturity
• Archaeopteryx is in the game Ark, and often flees when there’s conflict
• Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs shows an Archaeopteryx (2009 film)
• In 2001, a Swiss power glider was named The Ruppertarchaeopteryx
• The main belt asteroid found in 1991, was named 9860 Archaeopteryx
• There’s also an outdoor clothing and sporting goods brand called Archaeopteryx
• Alfred Jarry’s play in 1897 is called Ubu cocu, ou l’Archeopteryx (Ubu cuckolded, or the Archaeopteryx), and features Archaeopteryx as a character
• The Ubu Cocu play is a nonsensical avant-garde comedy where the wife of the protagonist gives birth to an Archaeopteryx offstage
  Classified as ‬Archaeopterygidae.
• Archaeopterygidae is a group of maniraptoran dinosaurs that lived in the Jurassic
• Only contains Archaeopteryx
• Max Fürbringer named the order Archaeopterygiformes in 1888 to contain the family Archaeopterygidae and the genus Archaeopteryx
• Fun fact: Oviraptor, which has no relation to dromaeosaurids which often have the “raptor” moniker. In both cases “raptor” was chosen to mean “to seize and carry off” or “thief” giving Oviraptor the unfortunate name meaning “egg thief” (which we explain was likely not the case in episode 78).

This episode was brought to you by:

The Royal Tyrrell Museum. The Royal Tyrrell Museum is located in southern Alberta, Canada. One of the top paleontological research institutes in the world, the entire museum is dedicated to the science of paleontology. It’s definitely a must see for every dinosaur enthusiast. More information can be found at tyrrellmuseum.com.

Permia. Permia is a prehistoric apparel and art brand, dedicated to creating collectible, scientifically accurate restorations of ancient life. There creations are available now on their Kickstarter page or Permia.com.

For those who may prefer reading, see below for the full transcript of our interview with Ari Rudenko:

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