Archaeopteryx lithographica Sauriurae: Archaeornithes: Archaeopterygidae Locality: Solnhofen, Bavaria, Germany Age: Late Jurassic (Early Titonian), 150 million years ago In the past 10-15 years, seemingly no one question attracts such lively interest from experts in the paleontology and evolution of the land vertebrates as the problem of the origin of birds. It is surrounded by the long-lasting controversy, that began soon after Archaeopteryx had been described in 1861 concerning the mainly two principal questions: What group was an ancestor of birds? How had the avian flight originated? |
