Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 2 December 2005:
Vol. 310. no. 5753, pp. 1483 - 1486
DOI: 10.1126/science.1120331
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

A Well-Preserved Archaeopteryx Specimen with Theropod Features

Gerald Mayr,1* Burkhard Pohl,2 D. Stefan Peters1

A nearly complete skeleton of Archaeopteryx with excellent bone preservation shows that the osteology of the urvogel is similar to that of nonavian theropod dinosaurs. The new specimen confirms the presence of a hyperextendible second toe as in dromaeosaurs and troodontids. Archaeopteryx had a plesiomorphic tetraradiate palatine bone and no fully reversed first toe. These observations provide further evidence for the theropod ancestry of birds. In addition, the presence of a hyperextendible second toe blurs the distinction of archaeopterygids from basal deinonychosaurs (troodontids and dromaeosaurs) and challenges the monophyly of Aves.

1 Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, Division of Ornithology, Senckenberganlage 25, D-60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
2 Wyoming Dinosaur Center, 110 Carter Ranch Road, Post Office Box 912, Thermopolis, WY 82443, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Gerald.Mayr{at}senckenberg.de

Read the Full Text

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)