It was 150 years ago today, on 30 September 1861, that Hermann
von Meyer gave the name Archaeopteryx lithographica to the
feathered animal that fluttered over the Solnhofen lagoon in
Late Jurassic Bavaria. At right is the entire published
article…a scant two paragraphs, only one of which is devoted to
Archaeopteryx. In that one paragraph he announced the discovery
of a feathered skeleton, to go along with the isolated feather
that he had announced six weeks earlier. For decades later,
scholars argued over his key statement: “For the denomination of
the animal I consider the term Archaeopteryx lithographica as
appropriate” (the original German sentence is pulled out in the
illustration). He named the animal, but not a specimen. Modern
rules dictate the designation of a “holotype” specimen that
officially bears the name. Should it be the feather, the
skeleton, or neither? I discussed this debate a little in my
first Archaeopteryx sesquicentennial post, but the result has
been that the skeleton—now known as the