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Archaeopteryx lithographica is the earliest and most primitive known bird (a fossil of an apparently earlier bird, Protoavis, is considered to be unproven by most paleontologists). Since the first discovery of a single feather in 1860, only seven specimens of Archaeopteryx have been found (if Wellnhoferia is a valid genus); all come from the Late Jurassic Solnhofen limestone of southern GermanyThe Federal Republic of Germany ( German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland is one of the world's leading industrialized countries, located in the middle of the European Union. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark and the Baltic Sea, to the east. The first skeleton is now housed at the Natural History Museum, London, and the most spectacular is the famed Berlin Specimen at the Humboldt Museum, in Berlin.

Its name comes from the limestoneshale overlaid by limestone. Cumberland Plateau, Tennessee Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed of mineral calcite (calcium carbonate). The primary source of this calcite is usually marine organisms. These organisms secrete shells that settle out of t where the first discovered fossil was printed. The limestone was found in Solnhofen , GermanyThe Federal Republic of Germany ( German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland is one of the world's leading industrialized countries, located in the middle of the European Union. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark and the Baltic Sea, to the east. It was formed in the JurassicThe Jurassic period is a major unit of the geologic timescale that extends from about 135 million years BP at the end of the Triassic to 195 million years BP at the beginning of the Cretaceous. As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the, 150 million years ago, which gives a clue of when the archaeopteryx lived. Archaeopteryx was similar in size and shape to a magpie, with short, broad wings and a long tail. The feathers resemble those of living birds, but Archaeopteryx was rather different from any bird we know of today: it had jaws lined with sharp teeth, three fingers ending in curving claws, and a long bony tail. Archaeopteryx is a derived theropodSee text Theropods ("beast foot") are a group of bipedal, primarily carnivorous dinosaurs, belonging to the saurischian ("lizard-hip") family. They flourished from the Late Triassic (~220 million years ago) until the close of the Cretaceous(65 million yea dinosaurSaurischia Ornithischia The dinosaurs were a diverse and long-lived superorder of prehistoric reptiles. What is a dinosaur? Definition Dinosaurs are a superorder of reptiles that first appeared approximately 230 million years ago. A few lines of primitive, and it is a powerful piece of evidence that birds evolved from reptiles, in particular, dinosaurs. The skeleton is most similar to the dinosaurs of the families Dromaeosauridae ( VelociraptorVelociraptor meaning roughly "fast thief", is a genus of small, agile and slender dinosaurs with up-curved skulls and large sickle claws. They are commonly known as raptors a name which can also refer to other dromaeosaurid dinosaurs. Velociraptors had st, DeinonychusDeinonychus was a predatory dinosaur with a pair of sickle-shaped slashing claws on its toes. Its name is derived from the Greek words "Deinos" and "Nychus," meaning "Terrible Claw. It lived approximately 100 million years ago, in what is now Montana., Utahraptor and their relatives) and Troodontidae.

There is some controversy regarding the question of whether Archaeopteryx could genuinely fly or only hop around and glide from trees. The lack of a large breastbone suggests it was not a strong flier, but flight muscles might have attached to the bird's thick, boomerang-shaped wishbone. The large wings and long tail, however, suggest that it was both stable and maneuverable in the air. The shape of the wings is similar to birds which fly through trees and brush. In 2004, scientists analyzing Archaeopteryx's braincase concluded that its brain was significantly larger than that of most dinosaurs, indicating that it possessed the brain size necessary for flying.

Archaeopteryx continues to play an important part in scientific debates about the origin and evolution of birds. Some scientists see Archaeopteryx as climbing through the trees like a squirrel, following the idea that birds evolved from tree-dwelling gliders (the "trees down" hypothesis for the evolution of flight). Other scientists see Archaeopteryxas running quickly along the ground, supporting the idea that birds evolved flight by running (the "ground up" hypothesis). So far, Archaeopteryx has perhaps produced as many questions as answers, and the latest findings on this fossil are unlikely to be the last word.

A seventh skeleton, once described as an Archaeopteryx specimen, was proposed in 2001 to have belonged instead to a new species Wellnhoferia grandis - this has remained contentious; the six remaining skeletons are now all assigned to the species Archaeopteryx lithographica, eliminating the putative species A. recurva and A. siemensii (New Scientist, 17 April 2004, p. 17).