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RE: [...] Archaeopteryx 10



> From: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu]On Behalf Of
> David Marjanovic
>
> >> Mayr, Pohl, Hartman and Peters, 2007. The tenth
> >> skeletal specimen of
> >> Archaeopteryx. Zoological Journal of the Linnean
> >> Society. 149 (1), 97 -- 116.
>
> An interesting outcome of this study is the distinction of two species: *A.
> lithographica*, including the London (1), Maxberg (3), Haarlem (4), and
> Solnhofen (5) specimens, and *A. siemensii*, including the Berlin (2),
> Munich (7), and Thermopolis (10) specimens. *Wellnhoferia grandis* is sunk
> because, while distinct from *A. siemensii*, it cannot be told apart from
> *A. lithographica*, and *A. bavarica* is sunk because the supposed sternum
> is part of the coracoid, removing the main difference between it and *A.
> siemensii* -- various proportions differ between the Munich specimen and the
> Berlin specimen, but in these the Thermopolis specimen is intermediate. The
> very small Eichstätt specimen (6), the very incomplete 8th specimen, and the
> inaccessible 9th specimen are not assigned to a species. -- *A.
> lithographica* is larger, has much larger flexor tubercles on the toe claws,
> different limb proportions, a stouter metatarsus, and a constriction in the
> middle of the premaxillary tooth crowns; the other features previously
> considered diagnostic for *Wellnhoferia* could also be diagnostic for *A.
> lithographica*, but are not preserved in the other three specimens; the end
> of the tail is not preserved in the Solnhofen specimen, so its tail length,
> previously considered diagnostic, can only be estimated.

For what it is worth, should _A. siemensii_ be considered a distinct genus, it 
reverts to good old _Archaeornis_ (the name it was
under among such classic work's as Heilmann's _The Origin of Birds_ and the 
original captioning of the Zallinger mural).

                Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
        Senior Lecturer, Vertebrate Paleontology
Department of Geology           Director, Earth, Life & Time Program
University of Maryland          College Park Scholars
        Mailing Address:
                Building 237, Room 1117
                College Park, MD  20742

http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/
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