Imagine stumbling upon a fossil so delicate that it reveals the ghostly outline of ancient feathers, hinting at a lost world ...

Archaeopteryx, had a striking resemblance to dinosaurs like the “terrible claw” Deinonychus. What experts lacked, but hoped for, was a non-bird theropod with preserved feathers to cinch the ...

Xu suggests that feather evolution may have gotten started in a common ancestor of pterodactyls and dinosaurs—nearly 240 million years ago, or some 95 million years before Archaeopteryx.

The evolution of feathers with an asymmetrical shape, like those of Archaeopteryx, further enhanced the flight capabilities of early birds. After Archaeopteryx, the fossil record suggests that ...

Photograph provided by The Wyoming Dinosaur Center Poised like a quill pen, this fossil feather is one among many that are helping paleontologists flesh out the story of Archaeopteryx. The ...

THE FEATHERS FLY Is Archaeopteryx a Fake? A special temporary exhibition in the British Museum (Natural History), London, UK. Opened August 18, 1987. In 1985, the astronomers Fred Hoyle and Chandra ...

Earlier dinosaurs, common ancestors to both Microraptor and Archaeopteryx, had already formed many of the physiological traits needed for getting airborne, such as feathers and light, hollow bones.

Previous research on a fossilised Archaeopteryx feather uncovered melanosomes - microscopic 'biological paint pot' structures in which pigment was once made - which led researchers to believe that the ...

Paleontologists have long thought that Archaeopteryx fossils, including this one discovered in Germany, placed the dinosaur at the base of the bird evolutionary tree. Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert!

The bird had fanned tail feathers, fused clavicles (creating ... that distinction still belongs to Archaeopteryx, which dates to 150 million years ago and is celebrated for showing that birds ...