The
Archaeopteryx was a birdlike dinosaur that likely had to get a running start to take flight. It lived during the Jurassic Period. Stocktrek Images/Getty Images/Stocktrek Images
It all began with a single feather. On Sept. 30, 1861, the German paleontologist Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer published his description of a jaw-dropping new find. Fossil feathers were unheard of at the time, yet somebody had pulled one out of a limestone quarry near Solnhofen, Bavaria.
Von Meyer named the animal it belonged to
Archaeopteryx lithographica. His choice was apt; the first part of that name (i.e.,
Archaeopteryx) means ancient wing.