Paleontologists have described a unutilized specimen of the genus Archaeopteryx from the Mörnsheim Formation within the Franconian Alb of Bavaria, Germany.
The Karlsruhe specimen: (A) latest status of the slabs previous to preparation; (B) slabs containing rest of the left arm and fragments of the fitting one later the 1st preparation. Symbol credit score: Foth et al., doi: 10.3897/fr.28.131671.
Archaeopteryx is a genus of feathered bird-like dinosaurs that lived all over the Jurassic length, about 150 million years in the past.
3 species and over ten specimens of Archaeopteryx are currently known, all from Bavaria, Germany.
Thought to be the first-known fowl, Archaeopteryx had primitive characteristics like tooth and a protracted bony tail, and used to be related in measurement to a Eurasian magpie.
“Archaeopteryx has played a crucial role in the controversy about the theory of evolution in general and the origin of birds in particular,” stated Dr. Christian Foth, a paleontologist on the College of Fribourg and the Universität Rostock, and his colleagues.
“This taxon to date is only known from the lower Tithonian of Bavaria, Germany, with nine out of eleven specimens currently referred to this genus having been unearthed from the Altmühltal Formation.”
“Morphological variations — for example, dentition and limb proportions — within the genus suggest that Archaeopteryx underwent evolutionary changes and may have split into different species throughout this time.”
“For more than 150 years, the genus Archaeopteryx was the only Jurassic representative referable to Paraves, a theropod clade that includes birds and their closest relatives, dromaeosaurids and troodontids,” they added.
“The discovery of a diverse assemblage of paravian theropods from slightly older rocks in northeast China during the last decades, the identification of the fragmentary Haarlem specimen of Archaeopteryx as a separate taxon, Ostromia crassipes, and the discovery of Alcmonavis poeschli, revealed a hitherto unexpected complexity of paravian evolution, diversity and distribution during the Late Jurassic.”
Reconstruction of Archaeopteryx albersdoerferi. Symbol credit score: Zhao Chuang / Martin Kundrát.
The unutilized Archaeopteryx specimen — a fragmentary skeleton — used to be came upon in Might 2019 within the Mörnsheim Formation at Mühlheim in Bavaria, south Germany.
“The skeleton is the third avialan specimen found in the Mörnsheim Formation,” the paleontologists stated.
“It comprises the right forelimb and shoulder as well as fragments of the left forelimb and both hind limbs.”
Informally known as the Karlsruhe specimen, the unutilized fossil is roughly 149 million years used and is the 12th specimen that represents the Archaeopteryx genus.
“The specimen is within the size range of the Daiting, Munich, Thermopolis and chicken wing specimens and, thus, represents one of the medium-sized Archaeopteryx specimens,” the researchers stated.
Their paper used to be printed in January 2025 within the magazine Fossil Document.
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C. Foth et al. 2025. A unutilized Archaeopteryx from the decrease Tithonian Mörnsheim Formation at Mühlheim (Overdue Jurassic). Fossil Document 28 (1): 17-43; doi: 10.3897/fr.28.131671