Archaeopteryx

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Remember to add your name to your info by putting it in brackets at the end. [Mr Gibb]

Archaeopteryx is one of the oldest prehistoric birds known and is related to the creation of birds. They were found in what is now the southGermanybut at that time would have been a large group of islands that were found nearer the equator around 150 million years ago. A lot of its features are very unlike birds, it has a full set of teeth, a long, very bony tail and three claws on its wing. They could grow to about half a meter long.(Jake) Appearing in the jurassic records, archaeopteryx is the oldest recognised bird. It was around about 150 million years ago. The name archaeopteryx has a meaning, it means ancient wing, which is a good name seen as it is a bird. Everything must have food to survive, so this creature ate bugs, as well as small animal. The length of this ancient creature was only about the size of a magpie you see flying by today. This creature couldn't fly very well, unlike other birds, even though it did have wings. Other features it had, were teeth and claws. It was a bit like a dinosaur. Normally, birds do not have these features. (Lauren**)**
 * The first fossil found of the archaeopteryx was found somewhere in Germany. A feather belonging to this creature was found in 1861 and now, in 2012, the feather is kept in a museum.

http://sharon-taxonomy2010-p6.wikispaces.com/file/view/34-27-Archaeopteryx-L.jpg/173769281/34-27-Archaeopteryx-L.jpg

http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/dinobird/img/archaeop.jpg

The link above takes you to a picture.

This is a picture of an archaeopteryx fossil. (Lauren Holder). [] [] The first website has many facts and several links near the bottom. The second website also has plenty of information. (Lauren Holder).

Archaeopteryx was a prehistoric bird from millions and millions of years ago. It is the missing link between reptiles and birds. It has a similarity to a dinosaur. Archaeopteryx basically means ancient wings, they had teeth a long bony tail, about 3 claws on each wing, belly ribs and a sternum. The perfect place for them would be on low island around the lagoons. These islands with long dry seasons(droughts) but only little rain. A archaeopteryx could fly or glide it had feathers to glide and to fly it had a boomerang shaped collarbone. They were important because it was the closest to a dinosaur when they were discovered. It has dinosaur features but also bird like features. The average Archaeopteryx would reach an adult size of 40-65cm long, after about 970 days (2years 8 months), but they only weighed up to 0.8 -1 kilogram.(Craig Siswick) BBC Archaeopteryx In this lnk there is some real good info and facts you caneven watch some videos if you want (Craig Siswick) Archaeopteryx

This photo is really interesting. Click the blue writing for a full image.(Craig Siswick)
 * //__ An archaeopteryx is an extinct bird from the Jurassic period, It has some of the same features as a lizard e.g. teeth, bony tail. __//**


 * //__ It is quite often referd to by its German name which is Urvogel which means first bird. __//**


 * //__ The name in English comes from the greek name archaīos which means ancient. __//**


 * //__ The archaeoptery lived about 150 million years ago (Ewan Stewart) __//**

**__ THE ARCHAEOPTERYX __** T he archaeopteryx is a world famous fossil found in 1855, the creature was a pigeon-like animal that was first thought to be an old crow or raven. But when the palaeontologists looked a bit closer they found it had what they called a “frond-tail” instead of the fan-tail modern birds had. They named there founding Archaeopteryx lithographica which comes from the Greek word //archa// // ī //// os // that meant ‘ancient’.



The archaeopteryx is important because it was the oldest bird found as well as being one of the first birds ever! Scientists think this was the missing link between birds and dinosaurs.



This is an artist's interpretation of an archaeopteryx. pretty cool ( Ranald Groves )