# Archaeopteryx had four wings



## Brian G Turner (May 30, 2004)

The first birds were probably four-winged gliders, and only later evolved into the sophisticated flapping fliers with light skeletons and two wings that we see today. This view of avian evolution is supported by a new study of _Archaeopteryx_, the most famous bird fossil, which reveals it had long feathers on its back and legs, as well as on its wings.

     The first _Archaeopteryx_ was discovered 140 years ago, and is now kept in Germany's Humboldt Museum in Berlin. Over the years there have been anecdotal reports that faint feathers can be seen on its hind legs. 

 These have now been confirmed by an analysis of the specimen by zoologist Per Christiansen of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and palaeontologist Niels Bonde of Copenhagen's Geological Institute.

     They report that _Archaeopteryx_ had contour feathers clustered along its back, around the legs and possibly on the base of its neck (_Comptes Rendus Palevol_, vol 3, p 99). The feathers are surprisingly modern-looking and similar to plumage seen on birds today, say the researchers.


  More: http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99995013


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## Jayaprakash Satyamurthy (May 31, 2004)

> Christiansen says the leg feathers measure just 3.5 centimetres long, which makes them too small to have been used in flight. But they could be the remnants of an ancestral hind wing sported by _Archaeopteryx_'s forebears.


 Now that's fascinating. One view of evolution is that it is a pattern of extreme disparity - a whole variety of essentially different designs - being generated - and then a process of natural selection and pure chance whittling these down to a smaller number of patterns, which then spawn endless variations within their set parameters. This is a rare glimpse at one of the many alternative designs that flying creatures may have tried out at the dawn of avian evolution.


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