1. Where did they come from?
Evolution of Birds
Where did they come from?

2. Archaeopteryx lithographica

3. Archaeopteryx
Fossils known only from the Solnhofen lithographic limestone quarry in Bavaria
first discovered in 1861
the perfect ‘missing link’ between reptiles and birds
(Origin of Species )
only other specimens found in 1857, 1877, 1951, 1974 (birds don’t fossilize well . . .why?)
the most important and valuable fossil known

4. What was Solnhofen like then?

5. Solnhofen Quarry now

6. A feather!
probably for thermoregulation rather than flight

7. Archaeopteryx dates to the Jurassic, ~160 mybp
slightly larger than a pigeon
did more gliding rather than flying
clawed ‘fingers’ for climbing
solid reptilian bones
had feathers and a furcula
probably not on the mainline of bird evolution

8. Diatryma ~60 mybp large carnivore 7 ft. tall and flightless
probably ran down mammals and reptiles
found in New Jersey (as well as elsewhere)

9. Phororhacos ~30 mybp about as tall as a man
lived in South America, probably before the before large predatory mammals lived there

10. Elephant bird weighed ~1000 pounds 2 gallon eggs
Aepyornis
Elephant bird
weighed ~1000 pounds
2 gallon eggs

11. What is the ancestral line?
Dinosaurs?
Crocodiles?

12. Recent research developments:
1984 finding of a new ‘oldest bird fossil’ from Texas, Protoavis
~75 my older than Archaeopteryx
more birdlike, more advanced
perhaps more on the evolutionary mainstream of birds
gives stronger evidence to dinosaur lineage