ARCHAEOPTERYX

Dr. Peter WELLNHOFER war als Paläontologe an der Bayerischen Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie in München tätig und hat in jahrzehntelangen Forschungen die Urvogel-Funde selbst untersucht. Mit diesem Buch legt er die bisher vollständigste Dokumentation über das Thema Archaeopteryx in verständlicher Sprache vor. 1997 wurde er mit dem Werner-und-Inge-Grüter-Preis für Wissenschaftsvermittlung ausgezeichnet.

Had the Solenhofen quarries been commissioned – by august command – to turn out a strange being à la Darwin – it could not have executed the behest more handsomely – than in the Archaeopteryx. Hugh Falconer, 1863 As Charles Darwin’s friend, Hugh Falconer, put it upon examination of the London specimen, Archaeopteryx is the ultimate “missing link”, the cornerstone of a remarkable evolutionary transition – today witnessed by a multitude of fossils on both sides of an increasingly hazy dinosaur-bird divide – and Peter Wellnhofer is the Urvogel’s modern architect. He is the world’s authority on the celebrated 150-million-year-old bird and he has been so for over 30 years. Known by only ten skeletal specimens and a single feather imprint discovered during the last 150 years, the priceless fossils of Archaeopteryx have had tremendous significance for our understanding of evolution, and their impact has gone way beyond science and into the social realm. Drawing from his immense familiarity with the fossils from the world-famous Solnhofen limestone, Wellnhofer narrates the history of discovery of Archaeopteryx, and the stories of the villages, collectors, and scholars whose fortunes became entangled with these discoveries. This book includes chapters on the geology and special preservation of the Solnhofen limestone, and interpretations of the environment inhabited by Archaeopteryx. The core of this book provides detailed descriptions and exquisite illustrations of each specimen. These and other chapters discuss the various interpretations regarding the size, growth and life history, plumage, physiology, life style, and other aspects of the paleobiology of this most ancient bird. Because Archaeopteryx has played a key role in discussions about bird origins, this book also addresses the rise of birds, highlighting the evidence in support of their dinosaurian ancestry, and the less settled issue of the beginning of avian flight. It closes with a summary of the early history of birds, which has been recently illuminated by countless new fossils from throughout the Cretaceous period. As a student of early avian evolution, I have benefited enormously from Wellnhofer’s vast knowledge of the anatomy of Archaeopteryx, his detailed monographs on the Eichstätt, Solnhofen and Munich specimens, and his deep understanding of its historical context. His decades of involvement in the subject have made him part of the very same history he writes about. No one else could have written a book about Archaeopteryx with the same insider’s perspective and knowledge. Remarkably for someone so deeply involved in the subject, Wellnhofer’s approach to the universe of opinions about the natural history of the Urvogels betrays his magnanimous attitude; this even-handedness assures a fair coverage of the multitude of ideas that have been proposed about the life of Archaeopteryx. There may never be another book on Archaeopteryx as detailed and comprehensive as this. Readers will undoubtedly find it to be a tour de force of one of the most significant fossils in the history of paleontology. On the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species, I cannot think of a timelier book on paleontology than one about the legendary fossil bird that made such a grand case for Darwinism. Luis M. CHIAPPE, Director The Dinosaur Institute, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, USA August 2009