Re: Archaeopteryx with bird book, was Re: Archaeopteryx flight

[Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Jerzy wrote:

> I agree that A. most probably was fully feathered, but body feathers were 
> not preserved.

According to Christiansen and Bonde (2004), body contour feathers are 
preserved in the Berlin specimen of _Archaeopteryx_.  This study found no 
evidence for feathers on the head.

Christiansen, P., and Bonde, N. (2004). Body plumage in _Archaeopteryx_: a 
review,
and new evidence from the Berlin specimen. C. R. Palevol 3: 99-118.

Abstract: "The feathers of _Archaeopteryx_ have been known for over 140 
years, are the most important reason for its fame and avian status. Previous 
analyses have almost unanimously focused on the remiges and rectrices. Faint 
remains of what appears to be body contour feathers are, however, present in 
the Berlin specimen along the back, around the legs, and possibly anterior 
to the basal part of the neck. Although noted by numerous previous authors 
every reference to these feathers was anecdotal. Recent claims that body 
feathers were once present but were mechanically removed appear 
unsubstantiated. Rather, the Berlin _Archaeopteryx_ has to this day the same 
regions more or less intact as depicted on early drawings. The present study 
reveals that the impressions are very different from preparation scratches, 
and are consistent with body feathers. The counterslab corroborates this, 
and in several cases both raches and barbs can be made out. The preserved 
body feathers of the back and the legs evidently were considerably smaller 
than the flight feathers, and clearly pennaceous in nature. The state of 
preservation does not, however, permit secure inferences that these body 
feathers necessarily resembled body contour feathers on most extant volant 
birds, nor that such feathers were distributed all over the body, although 
this is one possible scenario. Alternatively, the feathers on the back and 
legs could have resembled more simple contour feathers with open vanes, 
present in, for instance, ratites. Faint impressions at the base of the neck 
may even represent `hair-like proto-feathers', and if so have been generated 
from some sort of `proto-apteria', whereas the longer feathers with vanes on 
back and legs grew from `proto-pterylae', corresponding to those areas with 
the longest neoptiles (embryonic downs), the first feathers to appear in 
embryos of several modern birds."


Cheers

Tim