On the Archeopteryx of von Meyer, with a description of the Fossil Remains of a Long-tailed species, from the Lithographic Stone of Solenhofen

Description:

From Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 153: 33-47. The first fossils of Archeopteryx lithographica (a single feather and a partial skeleton) were discovered in the limestone quarries of Solenhofen in 1861, and described and named the same year by the German palaeontologist, Hermann von Meyer (Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, 1861). On Richard Owen's recommendation, the fossil skeleton was subsequently purchased by the British Museum for the considerable sum of £700. Owen published his own description of the fossil in the present paper (renamed as Archeopteryx macrurus, a name which failed to gain acceptance), accompanied by the fine, life-size lithographic image of the specimen (plate size 575x445mm). Owen was a fervent opponent of Charles Darwin's recently published theory of evolution, and was convinced that the fossil was of a peculiar and distinctive bird, and not a transitional fossil.

Condition

4to, unbound, in recent portfolio case, plates separated from stitched section of text, which has gatherings unopened. Plates with only a few minor light spots of foxing.