United States or Somalia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
In fact, there can be no reasonable doubt that one of the smaller forms of the Ornithoscelida, Compsognathus, the almost entire skeleton of which has been discovered in the Solenhofen slates, was a bipedal animal.
Apart from the few fragmentary remains from the English greensand, to which I have referred, the Mesozoic rocks, older than those in which Hesperornis and Ichthyornis have been discovered have afforded no certain evidence of birds, with the remarkable exception of the Solenhofen slates.
The last and most striking of these novelties is "the feathered fossil" from the lithographic stone of Solenhofen. Until the year 1858, no well-determined skeleton of a bird had been detected in any rocks older than the Tertiary. In that year, Mr.
Some are of opinion that the two plates have been the gizzard of a cephalopod; others, that it may have formed a bivalve operculum of the same. Skeleton of Pterodactylus crassirostris. Oolite of Pappenheim, near Solenhofen. a. The celebrated lithographic stone of Solenhofen in Bavaria, appears to be of intermediate age between the Kimmeridge clay and the Coral Rag, presently to be described.
Not long ago, palaeontologists maintained that the whole class of birds came suddenly into existence during the eocene period; but now we know, on the authority of Professor Owen, that a bird certainly lived during the deposition of the upper greensand; and still more recently, that strange bird, the Archeopteryx, with a long lizard-like tail, bearing a pair of feathers on each joint, and with its wings furnished with two free claws, has been discovered in the oolitic slates of Solenhofen.
"Hence, ladies and gentlemen," he added, "that frightful brood of saurians which still affright our eyes when seen in the Wealden or in the Solenhofen slates, but which were fortunately extinct long before the first appearance of mankind upon this planet." "Question!" boomed a voice from the platform. Mr.
1863: Upper Oolite: Solenhofen. 1844: Carboniferous: Saarbruck, near Treves. 1828: Devonian: Caithness. 1840: Upper Ludlow: Ludlow. 1859: Lower Ludlow: Leintwardine. Obs. The evidence derived from foot-prints, though often to be relied on, is omitted in the above table, as being less exact than that founded on bones and teeth.
In the same slate of Solenhofen a fine example was met with in 1862 of the skeleton of a bird almost entire, and retaining even its feathers so perfect that the vanes as well as the shaft are preserved. The head was at first supposed to be wanting, but Mr.
In fact, there can be no reasonable doubt that one of the smaller forms of the Ornithoscelida, Compsognathus, the almost entire skeleton of which has been discovered in the Solenhofen slates, was a bipedal animal.
The best types of this breed which I have ever seen are to be found among the dogs which are kept to guard the quarries of Solenhofen, in Bavaria, whence come all the fine lithographic stones which are so extensively used in printing. These quarries are scattered over several square miles of untilled country, and the separate pits are to be numbered by the score.